Each year on Dec. 3, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities promotes the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities globally. Since its inception in 1992, the day has also increased awareness of the political, social, economic, and cultural life of persons with disabilities.
Seven of the United Nation's (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) specifically refer to persons with disabilities. As a leading research-intensive institution, Queen’s is committed to advancing the UN SDGs and to several initiatives to create more meaningful and concrete action on making the university accessible.
Today, there are 1.3 billion persons with disabilities globally. They are more likely to experience higher rates of poverty, poorer health, and are more likely to experience violence than persons without disabilities.
The rights and well-being of persons with disabilities have been advanced by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which was passed by the UN in 2006. Central to the convention is the understanding that the existence of environmental barriers is a key component of disability, and an accessible society ensures persons with disabilities are empowered to fully participate in society, including in the workforce.
For Yvonne Chan, PT’95, MSc’97, Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Santé Circle Health, a disability management company that helps employees return to work or stay at work after an illness or injury, the day is important. It serves as a reminder of the need for accessibility in the workplace and the important role accessible digital health technologies can play in creating a more equitable workplace.
When Chan was 15 years old, she was hit by a car while cycling in Scarborough, Ontario, and experienced four years of disability, using a wheelchair, crutches, and canes during the period. It marked the beginning of her disability advocacy.
“Unfortunately, I had a physiotherapist that was treating my health insurance and my car insurance plan versus seeing me as a person,” says Chan of the experience. “I felt like I lost my voice during my rehabilitation journey when I was 15, 16, 17 years old. I went into physiotherapy school thinking ‘I can be a better physiotherapist, and I think I can help others.’”
Chan chose to study rehabilitation therapy at Queen’s because the university gave her a chance to tell her disability story during the admission process. Being able to write an essay to explain why she wanted to be a physiotherapist was important to her and she has spent much of the last two decades helping persons with disabilities find their voices as they navigate disabilities in the workplace.
Chan founded Santé Circle Health for a similar reason, to help people navigate the confusing and at times alienating process of returning to work after sickness or injury. The idea came to her during a period of long-term disability when she was off work for two years and frequently had to advocate for herself.
“During the time I was off work, I was part of the long-term disability process as a consumer, and I found that I was providing my own objective measures to my case manager and creating my own Excel spreadsheets to explain and track my progress in my healthcare journey.”
Using her own disability journey, she created a health assessment tool called SAM (Self-start Accommodation Management) to help people express their accessibility needs. SAM takes over 300 possible questions about disability and simplifies it into a six-minute online questionnaire. A proprietary algorithm then provides a person’s health status in the areas of physical, cognitive, and functional abilities. It also provides an overall score. The details of what a person can and cannot do are reviewed by a healthcare professional who in turn summarizes accessibility needs.
“I built SAM for the everyday person who is having difficulty staying at their job or returning to their job after a physical or mental illness or an injury,” Chan explains. “They do not know where to start or how to tell their workplace what they need to be more productive and stay at work or return to work.”
Chan believes awareness days such as International Day of Persons with Disabilities provide persons with disabilities an opportunity to use their voice and advocate for more accessible workplaces.
“In Canada, we are very fortunate to have the Canadian Human Rights Act recognize disability as one of 13 protected characteristics. An employer’s duty to accommodate is a key driver for my business. I work with employers who recognize that they have a duty to accommodate, and who want to accommodate people with disabilities by removing barriers to help them stay at work or return to work by making the workplace more accessible.”
Chan is ready to take her SAM digital platform to international markets and hopes to influence governments to improve accommodation regulations and recognize persons with disabilities as people who can be can be both successful and who should be accommodated in the workplace.
“People are better at work. People will find better versions of themselves while at work. People are determined, people can do things, people have abilities, but they just need tools to express themselves and employers who want to listen.”
