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This study explores the challenges, barriers and opportunities for engaging persons with disabilities in employment in the Canadian financial sector.

We situated this research within a critical disability conceptual framework to add to existing theories of employee engagement. We conducted an exploratory qualitative study of key informant interviews of the experiences of diverse persons with disabilities in the Canadian financial sector.

We found that the financial sector has the potential to be a leader in the engagement of workers with disabilities. Key challenges include corporate bureaucracy and a focus on aggressive growth that perpetuates ableist norms of individualism, self-reliance and competitive achievement. Key informant interviews indicated that opportunities for engagement can be fostered by committed leadership, inclusive corporate culture, supportive management, and respectful and responsive workplace accommodations.

This article contributes to the literature on opportunities for equity, diversity and inclusion at work through a critical exploration of the challenges and promising practices associated with supporting engagement of persons with disabilities in the Canadian financial sector and beyond.

To develop a framework for estimating the economic benefits of an accessible and inclusive society and implement it for the Canadian context. The framework measures the gap between the current situation in terms of accessibility and inclusiveness, and a counterfactual scenario of a fully accessible and inclusive society.

The method consists of three steps. First, the conceptual framework was developed based on a literature review and expert knowledge. Second, the magnitudes for each domain of the framework was estimated for the reference year 2017 using data from various sources. Third, several sensitivity analyses were run using different assumptions and scenarios.

It was estimated that moving to a fully accessible and inclusive society would create a value of $337.7bn (with a range of $252.8–$422.7bn) for Canadian society in the reference year of 2017. This is a sizeable proportion of gross domestic product (17.6%, with a range of 13.1–22.0%) and is likely a conservative estimate of the potential benefits.

Understanding the magnitude of the economic benefits of an accessible and inclusive society can be extremely useful for governments, disability advocates and industry leaders as it provides invaluable information on the benefits of efforts, such as legislation, policies, programs and practices, to improve accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities. Furthermore, the total economic benefits and the benefits per person with a disability can serve as inputs in economic evaluations and impact assessments.