{"id":49288,"date":"2018-08-28T15:11:07","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T19:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=49288"},"modified":"2025-10-10T10:31:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T14:31:06","slug":"careers-people-with-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/careers-people-with-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Careers for People with Disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Careers for People with Disabilities\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

In the mid-1980s, when David Onley was working for low pay at a small and poorly performing radio station in Toronto, he was summoned to a meeting with Moses Znaimer, the co-founder of Toronto\u2019s groundbreaking CITY-TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onley, who was partially paralyzed after contracting polio as a child, had pitched a show about space to Znaimer and thought the visionary television executive liked the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Znaimer offered Onley a job as CITY\u2019s weatherman, doubling his salary. More important, it made Onley the first newscaster in Canada with a visible disability and kick-started his 22-year career as a reporter and news anchor, which led to Onley\u2019s appointment as Ontario lieutenant-governor in 2007 \u2014 the first person with a physical disability in the role.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cFor me, as a struggling person with a disability trying to build a career, the difference was one employer,\u201d says Onley, who has continued to champion accessibility since finishing his duties for the province in 2014.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cUnfortunately, there are not enough employers like Moses Znaimer. Which is what we\u2019re trying to change.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Careers
Honourable David C. Onley, former Ontario lieutenant-governor, meets with event attendees<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Onley was at Carleton University on August 27 to deliver the keynote address at the launch of the David C. Onley Initiative for Employment and Enterprise Development<\/a>, a partnership between Ottawa\u2019s post-secondary institutions aimed at developing knowledge, resources and tools to help students with disabilities advance their careers.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cLack of employment continues to be one of the greatest barriers to full equality faced by persons with disabilities,\u201d says Onley.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cI am honoured to be associated with and lend my name to Carleton\u2019s inspiring new initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAccessibility is not just about physical access, such as ramps and doors. Inclusion requires a change in values and attitude, and funding. It is attitudinal barriers that keep people with disabilities from achieving their full potential. It\u2019s what keeps them out of the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too many employers suffer from \u201cdisabiliphobia,\u201d says Onley. They think that employees with disabilities will have higher rates of absenteeism, not keep jobs as long and get injured more at work than other employees, even though research has repeatedly demonstrated that employees with disabilities have lower rates of absenteeism and stay in positions longer, and that workplace accidents occur at the same rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDisabiliphobia is unsubstantiated in both theory and practice,\u201d says Onley.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cSimply put, people with disabilities make terrific employees.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Moreover, there is no real labour shortage in Ontario when hundreds of thousands of people \u2014 among the nearly 1.9 million people in the province with a disability \u2014 are able to and want to work but can\u2019t get jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGetting employers to jettison the myths and misperceptions around disability requires education,\u201d says Onley. \u201cFull economic recovery and prosperity is not possible until employment for people with disabilities is addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"Careers<\/figure>\n\n\n

Tackling the Employment Problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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Carleton has built a reputation as the most accessible university in Canada for students with physical and mental disabilities. Graduation rates here have climbed to par with the general population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But despite education and workplace proficiency, people with disabilities suffer unemployment rates at least three times the general level in Ontario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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