Post-Secondary Education

First Phase of School-to-Work Transition Study Completed Many studies have confirmed that people with disabilities experience considerable barriers to obtaining post-secondary education and employment. Researchers have also found that people with disabilities who graduate from universities and colleges are more likely to be employed than people with disabilities with less education.

It’s interesting, therefore, that there has been little research on the transition experiences of university and college graduates with disabilities as they enter the labour force.

The Canadian Centre on Disability Studies (CCDS) has just completed the first phase of a study addressing that question. The study is examining the challenges students with disabilities experience as they make the transition from post-secondary education to work, as well as the factors that support successful transitions.

During the first phase of the study, 40 students with disabilities in Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto and Halifax were interviewed just before or after they graduated from university or college in 2002. Disability service providers and career and employment advisors at some of the universities and colleges that study participants attended were also interviewed.

The graduating students with disabilities told us about their experiences obtaining post-secondary educations, including factors that contributed to their successes, obstacles they encountered, their use of disability services, institutional financial supports and career services, as well as their immediate and long-term employment ambitions and their opinions about how well their educations had prepared them for the labour force.

CCDS plans to interview the 40 graduates again during the second phase of the study, expected to begin this fall. The data collected during the first phase of the study will serve as a baseline to compare the participants’ expectations to their actual experiences one year after graduation. To strengthen the study, 40 other people with disabilities who graduated during 2002 will also be interviewed.

The first phase of the study was funded by the Office for Disability Issues (Human Resources Development Canada). The report from the first phase is available on our website.

VIRTUAL MUSEUM
An Opportunity to Become Involved in History

Do you have photos, news clippings, personal correspondence, recordings of radio or television broadcasts, or other artifacts from the events that led to the inclusion of the rights of people with disabilities in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the early 1980s? If you do, we want to hear from you!

CCDS is gathering materials for a virtual museum exhibit on this pivotal moment in the history of persons with disabilities. Digital reproductions of relevant materials will illustrate the story, which people in Canada and around the world will be able to view on the World Wide Web. The virtual museum will also feature an interactive component that will allow visitors to contribute their own experiences and impressions about the rights of people with disabilities in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The exhibit will comply with World Wide Web accessibility guidelines so that all people with disabilities who use computers at home, at school, at work, or at public access sites can view the exhibit, regardless of the technologies they use to access the web.

CCDS is developing this virtual museum as a member of the Canadian Network on Inclusive Cultural Exchange (CNICE), a project funded by Canadian Heritage. CNICE is a network of 14 disability organizations, technology developers and universities collaborating on more than 10 projects related to making online Canadian cultural content, and the technologies used to create online cultural content, accessible to people with disabilities.

The project team includes CCDS staff Hal Loewen (Director, Disability Information Network) and Gary Annable (Senior Research Associate), plus consultants with expertise in the history of the Canadian disability rights movement, the curation of virtual museums and web design.

The virtual museum will be launched early in 2004 as part of CCDS’s re-designed website. Other exhibits will be added in future years as resources permit.

If you have anything relevant to lend or donate for this virtual museum exhibit, contact Hal Loewen, Project Manager (see “Contact Us,” below) to discuss what you have and how we may be able to use it. All persons who lend or donate materials displayed in the virtual museum will be entitled to be credited for their contribution. CCDS will not be responsible for any materials sent without first contacting us.

CONTACT US
Canadian Centre on Disability Studies
56 The Promenade
Winnipeg MB R3B 3H9
Phone: (204) 287-8411
TTY: (204) 475-6223
Fax: (204) 284-5343
E-mail: ccds@disabilitystudies.ca
Website: www.disabilitystudies.ca