Autism Alliance of Canada is excited to announce its 2022 Policy Development Working Group (PDWG), in partnership with Inclusion Canada. This summer, working group members will have the objective to analyze, develop and disseminate policy recommendations on accessibility for developmental disabilities (e.g. autism, intellectual disabilities) to better achieve inclusive employment in Canada.

The document created by the working group members will be shared with federal decision makers (e.g. working on the National Autism Strategy, accessibility standards, and the Disability Inclusion Action Plan) as well as with Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) working on employment projects across Canada.

This working group will have its first meeting beginning June and will be composed of approximately eight people with experience regarding accessibility in employment in autism and/or intellectual disabilities. Experience is defined as either lived experience (e.g. disabled people), professional experience (e.g. researcher, service provider), or both. Working group members are asked to commit between 5 to 10 hours per month from June to September 2022 and will be compensated for their time. 

If you are an Autistic person or a person with an intellectual disability, a family member or caregiver of a person on the autism spectrum and/or with an intellectual disability, or a service provider, policy maker, or researcher, and are interested in participating in this working group on employment and accessibility, we invite you to sign up. Selected members (preference given to lived experience then based on first come) will be contacted by May 13, 2022.

If you would like to see the recommendations from past working groups, check out our Policy Compendium.