Instructions: To use this sample memo/email, personalize the fields in the square brackets and copy/paste onto your company’s letterhead or into emails. You are encouraged to include your data from past years if you’ve already taken part in the Pledge to Measure before.
[Organization Name] is asking our employees to complete a survey on disability inclusion in the workplace.
Participating organizations are part of the Pledge to Measure in an effort to make employment more accessible for people with disabilities and facilitate workplace cultures that encourage self-disclosure. We are committing to measure and report on our number of employees and senior leaders with disabilities.
Our first step is to understand how many people with disabilities work for us right now. By filling out the Pledge to Measure survey, you will help us get an accurate picture of where we are at.
For more information on why we will be surveying staff, please read the FAQ document.
[Organization Name] recognizes the valuable contributions people with disabilities make to our communities and our workplaces. We also know they face more obstacles in getting jobs. We hope that tracking and sharing these numbers each year will lead to more accessible opportunities for current and future staff with disabilities.
Please take the survey before [date of internal deadline].
How will this information be used?
Your participation in this survey is completely voluntary. [Organization Name] respects the privacy of our employees. If you choose to participate, your participation and results of the survey will be kept anonymous. Our organization’s overall number of employees with disabilities and senior leaders with disabilities is all that will be made public. Your decision to participate or not participate will have no impact on your employment.
If you want to see how we compare to the other participating organizations, the data will be available at PledgeToMeasure.org in the fall.
What is a disability?
A disability is a condition that results when persons with such impairments encounter attitudinal or environmental barriers that hinder their full participation in society on an equal basis with others.
A disability is a condition that affects your mind or body. It could always be present or it could come and go. A disability may stop you from doing the things you want to do.
Barriers that get in your way could be:
- physical such as a curb or a heavy door,
- other people’s attitudes about you,
- the expected ways of doing things that are not easy for you.
A disability could be:
- physical – such as having a hard time using your legs or arms.
- sensory – such as not being able to see or hear.
- mental health – such as having emotions that limit your daily activities or being unable to be in control of your thoughts.
- learning – such as having a hard time with reading, writing or math.
- communication – such as needing technology to help talk with others.
- intellectual – such as needing help from others with everyday tasks like managing money and organizing time.
- cognitive – such as having a hard time thinking, remembering and doing things in order.
- functional limitation – such as not being able to walk very far because of a heart condition or being in pain a lot of the time.
How a disability could affect employment.
A person with a disability is defined by the Employment Equity Act (1995) and the Accessible Canada Act (2019) to include the following elements:
- long-term or episodic, AND
- disadvantaged in employment, OR
- see themselves as disadvantaged in employment, OR
- need accommodations or have been accommodated in the workplace.
Solving the barriers to workforce participation for people with disabilities requires adjustments to our policies, environments, and organizational cultures as well as open communication with employees.
