This past December, Disability Without Poverty hosted their Learning from Today to Make Tomorrow Better. This online event featured presentations from people with lived experience, service providers, and academic and community researchers. Each panelist brought unique insight into living with a disability and experiencing poverty. We have reported on one panel on navigating the ODSP.
Another panel, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Finding Benefits, explored ableism in the workforce and the potential for entrepreneurship amongst disabled Canadians with panelists Brittany Finlay, Edna Appiah-Kubi, Sarina Mawji, and Cindy Christensen. The option to ‘work for yourself’ is not often suggested, but it has the ability to open doors.
Sarina Mawji, with Disability Alliance BC, works at advancing equitable systems and helping people navigate complex challenges. She guided the audience through the current labour landscape and ableism in the workforce. Her call-to-action is for employees, employers, and the government to work together to make employment more accessible. Change requires not only an attitudinal shift, but for the government to fund disability supports as a step in poverty reduction. Current ableist attitudes in the workforce treat accessibility like a favour rather than a right, or inclusion as charity when, in reality, it’s a strategy. When we accommodate more people, we have more skills at our disposal. Sarina asserted that a great next step is revising job descriptions to match abilities by using language that is accessible and equitable.
It can be intimidating to consider entrepreneurship as someone with a disability because you risk losing the safety net of benefits. Edna Appiah-Kubi, the Senior Officer at Prosper Canada, spoke about access to benefits for Canadians. She introduced Prosper Canada’s primary benefits tool—Benefits Wayfinder—which allows users to explore five key disability benefits across provinces and territories and access free resources and disability benefit assistance. This tool was designed to be a “one-stop resource” for Canadians with disabilities, removing confusing jargon and difficult questions. Edna explained that the platform FAQ section is intended to “really capture the lived experiences” of people who have applied to ODSP. This tool also reflects current ODSP changes, so the information is up to date. As of this past summer, nearly 700,000 people have used Benefits Wayfinder.
Using benefits tools to explore the possibility of entrepreneurship is a powerful first step, but it’s also worth looking into other poverty reduction tools shared by disabled advocates. Cindy Christensen, a policy analyst and researcher with the Amaré Collective, is currently investigating how creative art can be a poverty reduction tool for disabled people. At the panel, she shared that many people with disabilities turn to art as a form of self-employment, but they face funding barriers that prevent them from reaching their potential. Cindy explained that for art to be a successful poverty reduction tool for people with disabilities, we need to focus on accessible applications for arts grants, the inclusion of assistive technology in artistic practices to increase access, and the skills building and development of disabled artists.
For more information about employment for people with disabilities, check out Disability Without Poverty’s Disability Poverty Report Card 2025.
