The Belong initiative focuses on building workplaces that are inclusive, diverse, equitable, accessible, and leading (IDEAL). Powered by Tourism HR Canada, the home of Discover Tourism, Belong offers a suite of free programs and resources to foster and strengthen IDEAL tourism workplaces across the country.
The Belong series of employer guides, Addressing Barriers to Accessible Employment, is specially designed to help tourism workplaces become more accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities.
Explore short quizzes, checklists, and worksheets designed to spark reflection and help turn ideas into action. You’ll also find downloadable employer guides that offer deeper guidance, real-world examples, and step-by-step support you can use right away.
Whether you’re just getting started or you’re building on existing disability inclusion efforts, these tools are here to help you move forward with confidence.
Key Terms
Throughout these resources, you may come across these key terms:
A disability-confident employer recognizes the talents that people with disabilities bring to the workplace. They feel confident in their ability to hire, support, and retain workers with disabilities, and work to drive lasting change in attitudes, behaviours, and cultures within their businesses to become fully inclusive.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 9 – Accessibility), accessibility means enabling persons with disabilities to live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, with access to all areas of society on an equal and equitable basis with others.
A barrier is anything that hinders the full and equal participation in society of persons with disabilities. This can include information and communication technology, physical and built environment, transportation, and attitudinal barriers.
The limit of an employer’s obligation to accommodate an employee. It is reached when factors such as safety, health, or cost make the employer’s burden in accommodating an employee too high
A legal obligation requiring employers to identify and remove barriers that adversely impact employees protected under the Canadian Human Rights Act. Employers must implement measures to allow these employees to perform their duties to the best of their abilities.
Getting Started
As you begin exploring the Addressing Barriers to Accessible Employment resources, you’ll find materials on such key topics as recruitment, onboarding, and compensation. There are also guides designed to help address key employment barriers, including attitudinal barriers, transportation barriers, physical and built environment barriers, and information and communication technology barriers. Each has been tailored to consider the wide range of tourism businesses.
Click below to get started.
Belong: Employer Guides
Learn more about all the resources available to make your workplace inclusive.
Myths About Disability & Work
Test your knowledge about the Canadian tourism sector’s efforts to include and support individuals with disabilities.
Managing Unfamiliar Situations
Navigating disability disclosure and accommodations at work can be challenging. This quiz helps you build confidence by exploring best practices for supporting employees with disabilities. Discover how ready you are to foster an inclusive workplace!
Inclusive Recruitment
Follow this checklist when recruiting and supporting workers with disabilities in the tourism-sector to ensure their success and growth within your organization.
Inclusive Hiring
This checklist is designed to help you assess your understanding of inclusive hiring principles, challenge assumptions, and strengthen your ability to make equitable hiring decisions.
Inclusive Onboarding
A checklist to ensure your business is adequately supporting your new hire and encouraging their career success and growth at your organization
Return-to-Work
Access a checklist of the type of information to include in a RTW agreement for employees who have a substance use disorder.
Accessible, Inclusive Employment Training
A suite of online, on-demand courses and facilitated workshop modules
Talent Referral Program
A program designed to bridge the gap between job seekers with disabilities and inclusive employers in the tourism sector.
