Are You Managing Episodic Disabilities in Your Workplace?

Realize offers resources on episodic disability, workplace accommodation and working with Long COVID for human resource professionals, managers, business leaders and employees.

The challenges of Long COVID, mental health issues and other episodic disabilities are playing out in workplaces across Canada.  “Combined data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the Canadian Income Survey shed new light on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevalence of disability in the workplace. Among those who were employed during the first four months of 2021, more than one in five (21.5%) had a physical, mental health, cognitive or other disability. This was an increase of 2.7 percentage points compared with 2019 (18.8%), continuing a long-term upward trend associated with population aging and other factors.” (Statistics Canada, 2022) Many researchers expect this increase to continue and even accelerate in 2023.

At Realize, our ground-breaking work on episodic disabilities and employment is informed by ongoing consultation with employers, HR professionals, employees, disability thought leaders/organizations and researchers. We consistently hear that people feel overwhelmed when trying to navigate what this rise in disability means in the workplace. Realize has a strong history of developing effective online courses, and we are happy to announce the launch of five courses tailored to the information needs of Human Resource professionals, managers, business leaders and employees living with episodic disability. Two of these courses have a specific focus on working with an episodic disability in the context of COVID.

Follow the links below to find out more!

An Introduction to Episodic Disabilities

This self-directed online course is designed to augment the knowledge and understanding of human resources professionals, supervisors and managers who form the primary support system at work for people living with episodic disabilities.

Accommodating Workplaces: Episodic Disabilities and Leading Practices at Work

This online course for human resource professionals and employees builds on the key concepts of what episodic disabilities are and the challenges faced by people living with episodic disabilities and goes deep into communication practices, universal workplace design, accessible design and more.

Understanding and Supporting Employees with Episodic Disabilities

This course is designed with human resource professionals, managers and supervisors in mind. It includes helpful guidelines on how to start an accommodation plan conversation with an employee living with an episodic disability. It also provides a helpful template to enact this plan that is in compliance with relevant legislation.

Working with an Episodic Disability in the Context of COVID-19

This course is designed for human resources professionals, managers and supervisors who want to better accommodate their diverse employees in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Changing Jobs with an Episodic Disability in the Context of COVID-19

An online course for supervisors, human resource managers and employers designed to bring awareness and understanding of how to accommodate new employees living with episodic disabilities as they are hired into your organizations. It also provides additional resources and instruction on adapting to new ways of working.

Episodic Disabilities at Work Training

This 2-hour Zoom workshop is designed for the workplace to provide an overview of episodic disabilities, information that promotes inclusion, best practices for becoming disability-confident employers and it’s also an opportunity to hear from someone with lived experience of working with an episodic disability.