From Intention to Impact: CIHR Anti-Ableism Action Plan

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Table of Contents

Message from the Acting CIHR President

I am pleased to introduce "From Intention to Impact: CIHR Anti-Ableism Action Plan." This plan adds to CIHR's commitments in the CIHR Accessibility Plan 2023 - 2026 by going beyond accessibility to address ableism at CIHR.

We know that persons with disabilities are disproportionately underrepresented in health research, largely due to barriers to accessibility and issues of ableism. It is our hope and expectation that the actions in this plan will make CIHR programs safer and more welcoming for persons with disabilities. We wish to strengthen momentum in building the disability-focused health research community in Canada, contributing to improved health outcomes for persons with disabilities through inclusive research excellence.

I would like to thank the members of the External Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Systemic Ableism for their work to co-develop the plan with CIHR, noting the leadership of Co-Chair, Dr. Mahadeo Sukhai, whose steadfast commitment informed, challenged and inspired many. I would also like to thank the community members who shared their knowledge and experiences during our engagement activities and the CIHR staff members who provided input throughout the process. I am so proud of this co-development process that brought together diverse backgrounds and experiences, valued each person's voice as equal, and used a consensus-building approach to reach decisions.

As we all know, change takes time. Over the course of this plan, we will continue to learn, grow, and adapt as we remove barriers to participation and work towards eliminating ableism in the health research system. As we begin the work described in this plan, we will continue to collaborate with persons with disabilities to put these actions into place and will hold ourselves accountable by monitoring and publicly reporting on our progress.

Everyone should be included and represented within health research. With the release of this plan, we commit to becoming an actively anti-ableist organization. We hope that our actions in this space will help other organizations to do the same.

Tammy J. Clifford, PhD
Acting President, CIHR

Message from the CIHR External Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Systemic Ableism

First, we wish to thank the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) for its invitation to serve on this committee. We are incredibly proud of the work we carried out together and in the true spirit of collaboration and power-sharing with CIHR.

Many of our accomplishments can be found on CIHR's webpage. However, during our two years together we did so much more. For example,

We were successful, in part, because of our co-chairs. We are grateful for their leadership and commitment. We are also thankful to CIHR for listening and the opportunity to take part in the co-development process and for the CIHR staff who prepared meeting materials and ensured meetings were fully accessible.

This is not to say we did not experience any challenges. However, we are confident that CIHR will integrate our lessons learned as it engages with the community and continues in the implementation and evaluation of this important work.

Importantly, we would like to thank those in the disability community who gave generously their time and knowledge in the development of this plan. Without their wisdom and lived expertise, none of this would have been possible. Finally, we would like to thank each other. Through our discussions, we have broadened our perspectives. We have built lasting relationships we know will continue beyond this committee's work.

With this plan's release, we are hopeful for the future. We look forward to seeing CIHR implement these actions over time. We are hopeful that our work will be the starting point for CIHR, and others, to integrate anti-ableism into its work.

Sincerely,

The CIHR External Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Systemic Ableism

Message from the Co-Chairs of the CIHR External Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Systemic Ableism

First, our deepest gratitude to our fellow members of the External Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Systemic Ableism (EAC-ASA). The EAC-ASA was brought together with a mandate to provide CIHR guidance on the identification of barriers and actions to take that will eliminate those barriers. CIHR's anti-ableism action plan represents a tremendous co-development effort that evolved through deliberate, meaningful engagement of the Committee membership. During our work together, the Committee modeled the principles of inclusion and anti-ableism reflected in the plan – an approach that required the commitment of everyone at the table.

Second, we'd like to commend the dedicated team in CIHR's Equity Strategy Branch (ESB) for their exceptionally thoughtful inclusive design and care throughout this process. The development of this action plan has been a learning journey for CIHR and the ESB team was highly successful in creating the context for meaningful collaboration.

This action plan is the culmination of deliberations among subject matter experts, including those with lived and living experience of disability, and CIHR staff. It outlines concrete, practical actions that will increase momentum to leverage the practices, tools and resources necessary for increased inclusion of persons with disabilities in CIHR funding programs. We believe that these steps, when taken, will also lead to an increased focus on disability health research.

This action plan recognizes that systemic barriers encountered by persons with disabilities in the health research funding system arise because of ableist assumptions underpinning our current system. Via this plan, the Committee hopes to call attention to, and begin to deconstruct and remove, those ableist assumptions. We recognize that CIHR as an organization has much work ahead to achieve its goals related to anti-ableism. However, for this plan to achieve its goals, all members of the health research funding community must join with CIHR in committing to the principles of fostering a truly anti-ableist and inclusive health research environment.

We look forward to the plan's ongoing implementation and next steps, and to the community's engagement in the work ahead.

Mahadeo Sukhai, PhD (Co-Chair) and Trudy Samuel (Co-Chair)

Executive Summary

Background: The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is committed to address barriers to accessibility and remove ableism in our funding system. That is why, we worked with the External Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Systemic Ableism to co-develop "From Intention to Impact: CIHR Anti-Ableism Action Plan".

We co-developed this action plan using the principles of respect, power-sharing, and collaboration. We also used information from an environmental scan, virtual discussion sessions, surveys, and a review of our policies and practices.

The Action Plan: The goal of this action plan is for CIHR and the health research community to be safer and more welcoming places for persons with disabilities. This plan commits CIHR to actions that address barriers experienced by persons with disabilities who interact with CIHR.

The actions are divided into four sections:

  1. Who CIHR funds
    • The aim of these actions is to make participation in CIHR funding opportunities equitable for persons with disabilities.
    • Actions in this section focus on strengthening our communications, investing in training, and removing barriers when applying to CIHR programs.
  2. What CIHR funds
    • The aim of these actions is to increase disability-focused research and anti-ableist approaches to research funded by CIHR.
    • Actions in this section focus on increasing the capacity of health researchers to conduct disability-focused research.
  3. How CIHR funds
    • The aim of these actions is to use anti-ableist approaches across all CIHR funding programs.
    • Actions in this section focus on updating CIHR policies and processes to eliminate barriers and ableism.
  4. Organizational Culture
    • The aim of these actions is to improve knowledge and awareness of disability and ableism at CIHR and beyond.
    • Actions in this section focus on training, knowledge sharing, and using practical tools in our day-to-day business and in decision-making.

Next steps: CIHR will publish a high-level implementation plan including details related to when the work will be done, how progress will be measured and reported, and how actions will be adjusted, if needed.

Feedback

CIHR would like to receive feedback on this plan, and the ways in which we are implementing this plan.

You may send your feedback by email, telephone, or mail.

If you wish your feedback to remain anonymous, please complete the online form (Link opens in new window).

Feedback will be collected, processed and addressed by a member of the Contact Centre with guidance from appropriate internal subject matter experts. Feedback will remain confidential. We will acknowledge receiving the feedback in the way it was received, unless the feedback was received anonymously.

Contact information

By email: support-soutien@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

By telephone (staff are available Monday to Friday, 7:00am to 8:00pm ET):

  • National Capital Region: 613-954-1968
  • Toll Free: 1-888-603-4178

In writing:

Attention: Contact Centre
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
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Address Locator 4809A
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Canada

A wheel with different coloured spokes representing the 8 key components of CIHR's Research Excellence Framework appears at the bottom left. The orange spoke represents the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion key component. This spoke is enlarged and within it is a large group of people who are diverse in ethnicity, age, sex, and disability. They are engaged in different activities, such as walking, running, or cycling. Some are using wheelchairs, canes, or prosthetic devices and bicycles. Everyone is moving in the same direction.

Background

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is Canada's federal health research funding agency. For information about what we do, visit our homepage where you will find information on health research and how CIHR funds health research.

This action plan is titled, From Intention to Impact: CIHR Anti-Ableism Action Plan. It was co-developed by the CIHR External Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Systemic Ableism (EAC - ASA) and the CIHR Equity Strategy Team. The actions in this plan are intended to go beyond accessibility-focused commitments within CIHR's Strategic Plan (2021-2031) and CIHR's Accessibility Plan (2023 - 2026) to make CIHR an actively anti-ableist organization.

For CIHR, being actively anti-ableist means acknowledging and actively confronting inequities that inadvertently lead to oppression of persons with disabilities within CIHR's health research funding systemFootnote 1 and in the broader health research systemFootnote 2. It also means that CIHR will continue to learn and change to reflect that the concept of anti-ableism evolves over time. By taking this journey towards anti-ableism, CIHR and the broader health research system will become safer and more welcoming places for persons with disabilities to participate and become agents of change.

The process of co-development for this action plan began in 2021 with a call for expressions of interest for membership on the EAC – ASA. This was the first time CIHR proactively included efforts to acknowledge and remove barriers to interacting with CIHR, such as offering accessible formats of application documents and submission of applications in a non-written form. Since that time, the EAC – ASA has been invaluable to CIHR's learnings about ableism and the ways in which it manifests itself within CIHR's health research funding system and across the broader health research system.

The co-development process was founded on bringing together diverse backgrounds and experiences, treating each person's voice as equal, and taking a deliberate consensus-building approach to decisions. EAC – ASA members have been actively involved in each step of the creation of this plan, from establishing agendas for recurring meetings, to guiding accessible consultations and evidence gathering, to an iterative writing process of this document. In this context, there was power sharing in deciding the content of this action plan with the EAC – ASA who represent a diversity of disabilities from the across the health research community.

What guided the co-development of this plan?

This plan was co-developed with the following context in mind:

What evidence informed the co-development of this plan?

This plan was informed by multiple sources of evidence, consultations, documented experiences, and research, including:

Implementing the actions in this plan

The timeline of this plan follows that of the CIHR Strategic Plan (2021-2031), meaning that the actions are intended to be put in place over several years up to 2031. This document describes 'what' actions CIHR will take. CIHR will publish a separate document that describes details for putting the actions in place, including when the work will be done, how progress will be measured and reported, and how actions will be adjusted, if needed.

Continued engagement of persons with disability

Actions in the CIHR Accessibility Plan (2023 - 2026) commit to establishing a permanent advisory committee on ableism and accessibility (action 21.1) and to establish a mechanism for continued consultation with persons with a disability (action 21.2) to guide the implementation of actions related to the design and delivery of programs and services. Similarly, under Strategic Priority D of the CIHR Strategic Plan, CIHR has committed to continued engagement of people with lived and living experience of health inequities in the design and delivery of CIHR programs. CIHR is coordinating these commitments to make sure they are fulfilled in a meaningful, sustainable, and effective way. The engagement mechanism that will be put in place (e.g., an advisory group) will be informed by actions in this plan to make sure that it will be inclusive and welcoming to persons with disabilities. This advisory group will be tasked with providing advice on co-design, how to best carry out the actions in this action plan and ensure persons with disabilities are included throughout their implementation.

The Action Plan

This plan aims for a cultural change in which CIHR, and the broader health research system, become safer and more welcoming places for persons with disabilities to participate and become agents of change. Culture change takes a long time and the changes that are expected to happen may not be fully realized in the timeframe of this plan. However, it is intended that the ultimate impacts of this plan are that:

Actions intended to lead to these ultimate impacts are organized into four sub-sections to align with how CIHR supports health researchers and health research.

Each of the four sub-sections will describe:

Who CIHR funds

This section is related to the people and organizations who apply for, and receive, funding from CIHR.

Objective

To make participation in CIHR funding opportunities equitable for persons with disabilities.

Documented barriers

Actions

These are the actions CIHR will take to establish an understanding of the valuable contributions of persons with disabilities in health research and to build capacity for persons with disability to enter and succeed in the health research funding system.

What CIHR funds

This section is related to the type of science and methodologies of research projects that are funded by CIHR.

Objective

To increase disability-focused research and integrate the consideration of disability and anti-ableism across CIHR-funded research.

Documented barriers

Actions

These are the actions CIHR will take to establish an understanding of the value of disability-focused research and to build capacity of health researchers to conduct disability-focused research.

How CIHR funds

This section is related to the policies, processes, and procedures that CIHR uses to carry out the day-to-day operations related to designing and delivering health research funding programs.

Objective

To embed anti-ableist approaches across all areas of the design and delivery of all CIHR funding programsFootnote 8.

Documented barriers

Actions

These are the actions CIHR will take to recognize issues of ableism in our operations and apply an anti-ableist lens to the design and delivery of all CIHR programs and services.

Organizational Culture

This section is related to changing the knowledge, beliefs and attitudes that shape decision-makingFootnote 17 and the ways in which CIHR operatesFootnote 18. By establishing CIHR as an actively anti-ableist organization and leading by example, the collective effects of changes to CIHR culture, policies, processes, and programs will exert influence over CIHR-funded institutions and the broader health research funding system.

Objective

To build knowledge and awareness across CIHR, and the broader health research community, so that the responsibility and ownership of dismantling systemic ableism is a shared behavioural practice.

Documented barriers

Actions

These are the actions CIHR will take to establish an awareness of ableism and its impacts on persons with disabilities within the health research funding system and to influence other organizations to integrate an anti-ableist lens to their respective roles in the broader health research funding system.

Enablers, Assumptions, and Risks

Enablers

Enablers are conditions (internal or external to CIHR) which need to be, or are expected to be, in place for the changes or effects to happen. The following are enablers for this action plan:

Assumptions

Assumptions are the beliefs or expectations about the conditions that will be in place or how something will happen. The following are assumptions for this action plan:

Risks

Risks are known or unknown elements that may compromise the enablers or assumptions. Plans to mitigate these risks will be included in implementation plans. The following are risks for this action plan:

Next Steps

Implementing the actions in this plan

CIHR will publish a high-level implementation plan including details related to when the work will be done, how progress will be measured and reported, and how actions will be adjusted, if needed.

Implementation of actions in this plan will build on CIHR's experience in transforming its guiding policies and program delivery. Established change management practices will be used to roll-out actions in a manner that will build momentum and acknowledge that culture change will occur from the cumulative, longer-term effects of the actions taken over time and across the organization. Within CIHR, early implementation will focus on establishing an organization-wide understanding of ableism and anti-ableism and building capacity for staff to recognize issues of ableism through education and training. Subsequently, implementation will move towards developing and using tools and resources to apply an anti-ableist lens to all CIHR operations, monitoring progress and continuous learning/unlearning.

Implementation of actions beyond CIHR will follow a similar approach. Building on a foundation of learning from previous initiatives that created a more equitable and robust health research funding system (e.g., integrating sex- and gender-based analysis into health research), CIHR will use a progressive approach beginning with increasing awareness, knowledge, and skills in the broader health research community of ableism and its detrimental effects on health research and those participating in the health research system. This will be done using communication products, education and training resources, and guidelines and practical tools for applying an anti-ableist lens to health research. This will be followed by changes to policy and processes for applicants, organizations, and peer reviewers to make sure an anti-ableist lens is a mandatory consideration across all CIHR-funded health research. CIHR will make tools, resources, lessons learned and progress available as a support to the broader anti-ableist transformation of the broader health research system.

Acknowledgments

Many groups and individuals – throughout Canada's health research community, Indigenous Peoples, and the greater public, as well as CIHR staff – contributed to the development of this action plan. In particular, CIHR and the EAC – ASA would like to acknowledge the valuable knowledge and experiences shared by participants of our virtual discussion sessions and online surveys. These consultations significantly shaped the goals and actions within this plan.

This plan was written by the CIHR Equity Strategy team and members of the EAC – ASA:

External Advisory Committee on Accessibility and Systemic Ableism

CIHR Equity Strategy Team

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