How NEADS will use proceeds from Equity Through Education
 About NEADS
 NEADS Programs and Resources
 NEADS Results
 What NEADS Members & Alumni Say

How NEADS will use proceeds from Equity Through Education

Equity Through Education funds are supporting several initiatives:

• Job Search Strategy Forums
• Scholarships for students with disabilities
• Enhancement of the NOWS job site
• Development of a mentorship program
• Campus awards to support innovative programs that improve campus life for students with disabilities.

Job Search Strategy Forums

• The initial proceeds from Equity Through Education were used to create innovative regional forums for students and young people with disabilities from across Canada. The goal of these fully accessible, barrier-free forums was to assist students with disabilities in their preparation to enter the job market, and to develop specific skills on job search strategies and practical techniques for success in making the transition from school to work.
• A series of eight forums were held in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Halifax, Victoria Winnipeg and St. John’s, with more than 700 attendees.
• These interactive, cross-disability forums utilized adaptive technologies, American Sign Language interpreters and other means to facilitate full and meaningful participation.  The forums primarily focused on preparation for the job market, dealing with:
• issues around disclosure of a disability in the workplace;
• enhancing communication skills and promoting personal skill sets;
• résumé development;
• conducting a job search;
• arranging workplace accommodations (the tools needed to get the job done such as special computer screens or programs, workstation modifications, etc); and,
• mentoring opportunities for both students and employers.

Scholarships

• Up to four individual NEADS Equity Through Education Scholarships will be awarded per year, at a value of $3,000 each.  Scholarships will be awarded to students for the academic years 2007 – 2009.
• These scholarships will be offered to encourage full access to post-secondary education for persons with disabilities who often have greater barriers to participation in higher education and extra costs because of their disabilities.
• The tuition scholarships will be awarded in the following categories of study: University undergraduate (Arts and Science); Graduate/Professional; and College.
• Students must be registered in a post-secondary institution. The scholarships will be paid directly to the post-secondary institution (in the students’ accounts) that the recipients are attending to defray the cost of tuition fees for post-secondary study.

NOWS Job Site

• The NEADS Online Work System (NOWS) is a bilingual, online service where employers can post opportunities and search for job-ready candidates with disabilities. Students and graduates with disabilities can register to look for employment in their fields of interest and can upload their CVs to be viewed by recruiters from registered employers.
• NOWS has grown tremendously since its launch in 2003; currently, over 1070 students and graduates with disabilities, as well as 56 employers, from different sectors of the economy, registered to use the site.
• With funding from Equity Through Education, NEADS is extending the development and awareness of the NEADS Online Work System to recruit additional employers and Career Centre and Employment Resource Centre professionals to the site.

Mentorship Program

• NEADS will utilize a portion of Equity Through Education funding to capitalize on the networks established and issues identified by NEADS over the past 20 years, the establishment of the NOWS website, and specifically during the 2005-2007 Job Search Strategies Forums (JSS) Project, and to meet an identified need arising from the JSS Forums, by developing a framework and piloting an extern/peer mentoring program for students with disabilities in post-secondary education.

Campus Group Award

• One NEADS Equity Through Education Organizational Project Award per year, will be granted in each of three years. The award is to be granted to a post-secondary campus group of students with disabilities or access committee addressing disability issues at a university or college, to support innovative programs/initiatives to improve campus life for students with disabilities.

• Since 1986, the National Educational Association of Disabled Students has been the voice of disabled students in Canada advocating for full access to post-secondary education and employment opportunities for students and graduates with a variety of disabilities.
• NEADS is governed by a 12 member Board of Directors. This Board is cross-disability and represents the geographical regions of the country. In order to maintain consumer control disabled students members have exclusive voting privileges.
• NEADS has a national office in Ottawa and offers services in both official languages.

NEADS Programs & Resources

Some of the many programs and resources offered include:

• A transition tool for high school students moving to post-secondary education.
• Support and referrals. For example, NEADS has a network of some 40 college and university campus-based committees on accessibility, and disabled students’ groups across Canada and also includes within their network 223 college and university disabled student services offices and over 90 students’ unions. The campus-based peer support groups are cross-disability.
• A financial aid directory.
• Forums and meetings to consult with students and address issues of access to post secondary education and employment.
• A job site – the NEADS Online Work System – NOWS – is accessible to students and employers, and has over 1,400 students and recent grads with disabilities and 82 employers and employment agencies registered. NEADS is successfully building the bridge between employers and young graduates who are seeking job opportunities.
• On-line forums have allowed disabled students from across Canada to engage in mutually beneficial discussions where they can share strategies and offer each other mutual support and advice. “NEADS-L” includes some 200 registered members

NEADS Results

• Unemployment remains a major challenge of persons with disabilities. For example, 52% of persons with disabilities are not in the labour force compared to 16 % of those without disabilities. (Advancing the Inclusion of People with Disabilities 2004 – A Government of Canada Study) The NEADS website, launched in 2000, now has well over 100,000 visitors per month and strongly indicated that NEADS is drawing significant attention to the real need for accessible learning in Canada.
• NEADS’ work in advocating for post-secondary education for young people with disabilities is critical. Research indicates people with disabilities who have a post secondary education are much more likely to be participating in the labour market. Only 10 % of persons with disabilities who had post-secondary credentials were unemployed, compared to nearly twice that percentage (18.5 %) who had not completed high school.
• As well, higher levels of education led to different forms of employment. Persons with disabilities who had post-secondary credentials were much more likely to obtain professional or managerial employ. (Living with Disability in Canada: An Economic Portrait, Social Development Canada. GOC 1991).
• The number of students registered on the NOWS job site has doubled since its inception in 2003.
• NEADS' acknowledged leadership of young people with disabilities has recently led the organisation to work with other Canadian groups on the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights and Dignity of Persons With Disabilities. Meetings have taken place at the UN in New York and in Canada. NEADS members are actively participating in discussions on this UN Convention with a special focus on Article 17, which deals with Education.

What NEADS Members & Alumni Say

"From the first time that I connected with NEADS, the organization had a different feel to it. You feel you are part of something significant, that you are making a valuable contribution to society. By being involved with NEADS, I have made close friends, acquired great leadership and interpersonal skills along with the ability to network. This has not only assisted me in building a network of people for my career, but, has also allowed me to perform well during interviews and succeed. The biggest win for me as a part of NEADS has been my involvement with real changes in the Canada Student Loans Program in the past two years that have benefited students with disabilities."

"People I know who made the transition [to post-secondary education] found it a little harder because of their disabilities - having a network of students to turn to can help smooth that."

"NEADS has allowed me to learn that I am not alone, that there are other students with disabilities encountering the same obstacles and challenges as me and that we can learn from one another... The greatest benefit that I received from being a member of NEADS is connecting with people, not only students, but also employers and service providers from across the country and seeing the true diversity of services for students with disabilities from coast to coast."

"I arrived at Carleton as an international student in the 1999. As a student with a disability, I was guided to make use of many different services provided at the university. And I found myself in the NEADS office, which has helped me to answer a lot of the questions that I have had as a student in a post-secondary institution. I have also helped volunteer with this organization in order to improve the status of students with disabilities in and around my campus. My relationship with NEADS has been vital to achieving goals that I have set for myself."