The MaRS and CIBC Inclusive Design Challenge: Access to Work
The first innovation challenge in this series seeks solutions to support accessible career entry for persons with disabilities.
Challenge Description
The first innovation challenge seeks solutions that support accessible career entry for persons with disabilities. Priority areas identified by the disability community in this area include bias, disclosure of disability, and the limitations of a “one-size-fits-all” recruitment process.
Who Should Participate?
We’re looking for individuals, groups and organizations with a solution to make finding meaningful employment more accessible to persons with disabilities. We welcome solutions from people with lived experience across the disability spectrum, startups, non-profits, academics and students, private and public sector organizations and the general public.
Opportunity
Five winners will be awarded the following prizes:
- A first place prize of $50,000
- 2 runner-up prizes of $20,000
- 2 honourable mention prizes of $5,000
- In-kind support provided by MaRS and CIBC including access to scaling pathways and adoption-oriented activities.
Click here for Challenge Rules
What’s Happening Now?
Congratulations to the winners of this Challenge: Lime Connect, SenseTech Solutions, Zera Café, Liebs&Co. and SPOT. Read more about their innovative solutions here.
The Problem
There are many people with disabilities who can and want to work. But they don’t always get the chance to do so, and certain barriers can stand in the way of finding and keeping meaningful work.
Meaningful work:
- Gives purpose
- Allows people to follow their interests or achieve their goals
Persons with disabilities represent a large untapped talent pool in the Canadian labour market. In 2017, 3,727,920 Canadians between the ages of 25 and 64 identified as having a disability.[1] Only three in five (59%) of these individuals were employed. Of those who were not employed, nearly 645,000 (40%) had paid work potential but were unable to find suitable jobs.[2] While there is significant evidence[3] that companies benefit from the inclusion of persons with disabilities in the workforce, many still struggle to find a job and to access meaningful opportunities that utilize their skill sets.
Why address this problem now?
As of April 2020, 5.5 million Canadian workers have experienced either job loss or significantly reduced hours due to COVID-19.[4] On top of existing barriers to employment, persons with disabilities are more likely to experience difficulties finding and returning to work during the COVID-19 recovery.[5]
Changes made to enable work during the pandemic have been a large step forward in terms of access to employment for persons with disabilities, but significant room for improvement remains. Now is the time for bold solutions that will transform access to meaningful employment for persons with disabilities.
Sign up for our mailing list to receive updates about this Challenge. E-mail challenges@marsdd.com with any questions.
[1] Morris et al., ‘A demographic, employment and income profile of Canadians with disabilities aged 15 years and over, 2017’ (Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2018).
[2] Ibid. Note: having “work potential‟ is defined by Statistics Canada as persons with disability not currently working, not currently in school, not housebound and no preventions from working. They stress that it is not an attempt to measure an individual’s capacity or ability to work, but a way to examine how the labour market could change in a more inclusive market. For more, see StatsCan’s Annex A: Work Potential.
[3] Jerdee, Chad. 2019. ‘What companies gain by including persons with disabilities’. April 23.
[4] Statistics Canada. 2020. “Labour Force Survey, April 2020.” Component of Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 11-001-X.
[5] Mitra, S. and Kruse, D. 2016. “Are workers with disabilities more likely to be displaced?” The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(14), pp.1550-1579.
This post is also available in: Français
What are we asking for?
MaRS and CIBC are seeking solutions that support accessible career entry for persons with disabilities. Submissions will be evaluated based on their potential to help persons with disabilities accessing meaningful employment, their impact on people with different types of disabilities and identities, and their long-term benefits.
We welcome solutions that have been applied to support access to meaningful employment in other contexts. However, it is critical that the perspectives of persons with disabilities are considered and that they inform your solution to this Challenge.
In the first phase of the Inclusive Design Challenge, which occurred in early 2021, MaRS and CIBC asked persons with disabilities and allies to tell us about barriers to finding meaningful employment they had seen, heard of or experienced themselves. Key areas of focus related to finding employment or pathways to career entry are highlighted below:
- Attitudinal Bias: Pervasive myths that people have about persons with disabilities that result in negative attitudes or assumptions about their ability to work.
- Disclosure: The process during which individuals decide when and if they will disclose their disability to their employer in the application process, and the implications of this decision.
- A one-size-fits-all approach to recruitment: Organizational hiring processes may be the same for all candidates, which put persons with disabilities at a disadvantage.
Note that solutions addressing these areas will be awarded additional points in the Challenge evaluation process.
For more information on barriers to employment identified by the disability community, please consult these resources:
Prizes
The winner of this challenge will receive a $50,000 grand prize; two runners-up will receive $20,000 each; and two innovators will be awarded $5,000 each with honourable mention. Please consult the Challenge Rules for further information about the Challenge prizes.
Beyond the prize, winners of each Challenge will receive access to scaling pathways and adoption-oriented activities provided by MaRS and CIBC to accelerate the impact of their solutions.
This post is also available in: Français
Options to apply
Participants must complete one of the following options before the June 30, 2021 11:59 PM ET deadline:
1. Complete the following tasks on the Inclusive Design Challenge: Access to Work website:
- You or your team’s primary contact person must create a profile on https://challenges.marsdd.com/.
- Read the Challenge Rules.
- Click “Accept Challenge” on the Inclusive Design Challenge: Access to Work webpage.
- Ensure you meet the requirements as outlined in the Challenge Rules and on the Inclusive Design Challenge: Access to Work webpage.
- Complete the Submission Form, following word limits, and save in PDF format with your team/applicant name and date listed in the file name (e.g. Team-MaRS_May202021_Submission-Form.pdf).
- Click “Submit Application” on the Inclusive Design Challenge: Employment Access webpage and upload your saved Submission Form.
2. Send an email to challenges@marsdd.com with an attached audio or video file of your answers to the submission questions.
3. Mail your answers to the submission questions to:
ATTN: Louise Pichette – Inclusive Design Challenge
MaRS Discovery District
101 College Street, Suite 100
Toronto ON M5G 1L7
Contact us at challenges@marsdd.com or (647) 255-1452 if you have questions or require another submission format.
Required for Submission
Resources
Useful Links
FAQ
To participate, you must meet all of the following criteria:
- You are a legal resident of Canada
- You are the age of majority where you reside (province or territory)
- You are not an employee of MaRS or CIBC
- You are not an immediate family member of a MaRS or CIBC employee
Participants must complete one of the following options before the June 30, 2021 11:59 PM EDT deadline:
1. Complete the following tasks on the Inclusive Design Challenge: Access to Work website:
- You or your team’s primary contact person must create a profile on https://challenges.marsdd.com/.
- Read the Challenge Rules.
- Click “Accept Challenge” on the Inclusive Design Challenge: Access to Work webpage.
- Ensure you meet the requirements as outlined in the Challenge Rules and on the Inclusive Design Challenge: Access to Work webpage.
- Complete this Submission Form, following word limits, and save in PDF format with your team/applicant name and date listed in the file name (e.g. Team-MaRS_May202021_Submission-Form.pdf).
- Click “Submit Application” on the Inclusive Design Challenge: Employment Access webpage and upload your saved Submission Form.
2. Send an email to challenges@marsdd.com with an attached audio or video file of your answers to the submission questions.
3. Mail your answers to the submission questions to:
ATTN: Louise Pichette – Inclusive Design Challenge
MaRS Discovery District
101 College Street, Suite 100
Toronto ON M5G 1L7
Contact us at challenges@marsdd.com or (647) 255-1452 if you have questions or require another submission format.
You may participate in this challenge as an individual, a team, or an organization. Please ensure that you indicate who you represent in your submission form.
In the first phase of the Inclusive Design Challenge, which occurred in early 2021, MaRS and CIBC asked persons with disabilities and allies to tell us about barriers to finding meaningful employment they had seen, heard of or experienced themselves. Priority areas for each competition were selected based on their potential impact on finding and keeping meaningful work, and impact on people with different types of disabilities.
Winners will be selected by a panel of judges based on the Challenge Evaluation Criteria. Note that the 2 honourable mention prizes will be awarded to participants scoring the highest on the Impact on Community criterion. The challenge winner and runners-up are not eligible to win the honourable mention prizes.
Please contact us if you require a different submission format or have questions about the accessibility of the submission process.
Yes, please contact the MaRS Team for help submitting your idea in one of the formats available.
You may submit a maximum of ONE entry per individual, team, or organization.
Rules
Before emailing or uploading your audio or video recording, please ensure that:
- It contains your original solutions and work.
- It does not have copyrighted or trademarked content.
- It is equal to or less than 1GB in size and 10 minutes in length.
You may submit your audio or video file as an email attachment, or upload to Google Drive, YouTube or a similar video hosting platform and share the link with us via email. Please send all videos to challenges@marsdd.com with the following subject line: “Inclusive Design Challenge: Access to Work Submission”.
Guidelines for uploading to YouTube:
- Please publish your video for public viewing and set to unlisted.
- Please do not set your video to private. (see youtube.com/help for details)
Note: Judges are NOT evaluating audio or video production skills. You are welcome to record using a cell phone.
Please reach out to the MaRS team if you have any technical problems.
No. Other participants cannot view submissions.
Please contact the MaRS Team, we are happy to help!
No. Participants are required to respond to the questions contained in the Submission Form in ONLY ONE of the 3 submission options available. If completing the Submission Form on our website, participants have the option to include a video in the Appendix section.
We ask participants to choose one of the following three submission options available to participate:
1. Website Submission
Complete the following tasks on the Inclusive Design Challenge: Access to Work website:
- You or your team’s primary contact person must create a profile on https://challenges.marsdd.com/.
- Read the Challenge Rules.
- Click “Accept Challenge” on the Inclusive Design Challenge: Access to Work webpage.
- Ensure you meet the requirements as outlined in the Challenge Rules and on the Inclusive Design Challenge: Access to Work webpage.
- Complete this Submission Form, following word limits, and save in PDF format with your team/applicant name and date listed in the file name (e.g. Team-MaRS_May202021_Submission-Form.pdf).
- Click “Submit Application” on the Inclusive Design Challenge: Employment Access webpage and upload your saved Submission Form.
2. Audio/Video Submission
Send an email to challenges@marsdd.com with an attached audio or video file of your answers to the submission questions.
3. Mail-In Submission
Mail your answers to the submission questions to:
ATTN: Louise Pichette – Inclusive Design Challenge
MaRS Discovery District
101 College Street, Suite 100
Toronto ON M5G 1L7
Contact us at challenges@marsdd.com or (647) 255-1452 if you have questions or require another submission format.