Connecting the Dots 2025 Session Information

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, hybrid work has reshaped the Canadian workplace, offering employees flexibility and autonomy. By 2023, nearly half of Canadian organizations had adopted hybrid-remote models, with industries like finance, technology, and professional services leading the charge. This shift was driven by productivity gains, talent acquisition strategies, and employee demand for work-life balance.

However, 2025 marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of work culture. A growing number of Canadian enterprises—particularly major banks such as TD, RBC, BMO, and Scotiabank—have initiated return-to-office mandates, requiring employees to be onsite four days a week. Companies like Rogers and Starbucks have followed suit, citing collaboration, mentorship, and cultural cohesion as key drivers.

This transition has sparked tension. Surveys reveal that 60% of Canadians prefer working primarily from home, and over half of those mandated to return are "upset or very upset". Experts warn that rigid policies may erode trust, reduce inclusivity, and prompt talent attrition, especially among caregivers and remote-preferred workers. Nonetheless, some employees—particularly Gen Z—see value in in-person mentorship and career growth opportunities.
As hybrid work stabilizes as a "new normal," the Canadian labour market faces a balancing act: reconciling corporate goals with employee expectations. The success of return-to-office strategies will hinge on thoughtful implementation, flexibility, and a renewed focus on workplace equity.

In this panel, we will look to gain perspectives of Canadian Employers, the sight loss community to inform a wider group on the realities of the world we all Live, Work, and Play in.  There are no simple answers, but we seek to share perspectives.

Persons with disabilities are some of the most innovative, talented and creative people you will ever meet.  This makes us excellent employees, leaders, bosses and entrepreneurs.  And yet, many persons with disabilities are unemployed or under-employed.  Why is this?

Barriers to employment include lack of access to skills training and development opportunities and inaccessible workplaces. Persons with disabilities are also regularly subjected to workplace bias, discrimination and exclusion. 

As Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, my job was to tackle this under-representation in the Canadian labour market.  As a person with a disability, I took this very seriously. 

Changes to the world of work provide opportunities to be more disability inclusive but also threaten to exacerbate existing inequities. For example, while the COVID-19 pandemic had a disproportionate impact on the employment outcomes of persons with disabilities, it also mainstreamed and flipped conversations around workplace accommodations and alternate work arrangements.

The business case for disability employment is irrefutable.  In fact, our country will not reach its full economic potential unless we embrace disability inclusion as a core business value. 

In this fireside chat we will hear the perspective of Canada’s first ever Minister responsible for Persons with Disabilities who was also the Employment Minister during the pandemic.

The Canadian National Standards for the Education of Children and Youth Who are Blind or Visually Impaired, Including Those with Additional Disabilities were first published in 2003 to set a common quality standard for educational programming across the country. These Standards were updated in 2017 to reflect changing educational landscape in Canada and to add more specific and measurable indicators of program quality for each standard. This presentation will provide an update on the process currently underway to update the Standards for 2025 and beyond. The process began with a youth advisory committee, recognizing that students are at the centre of the standards process. The next phase will branch out from students to include educators and family members. This presentation will also serve as a means of promoting the update process in the hopes of increasing engagement with these groups.  

This presentation explores current and emerging technologies that increase communication, independence, and safety for the Deafblind community.  While very few tools are designed with Deafblind users in mind, individuals often adapt or combine multiple devices to complete tasks others can accomplish with just one.  By highlighting both challenges and innovations, this session emphasizes that  tactile, haptic, and braille-based solutions are essential not optional for meaningful access.

Designing with, not for, the Deafblind community is imperative to ensure accessibility, usability, and equity in technology.

Blindness and low vision affect millions worldwide, with profound impacts on independence, mental health, and quality of life. While traditional interventions have focused on compensatory strategies, advances in vision rehabilitation are increasingly drawing from neuroscience, engineering, and patient-centered care models to foster greater autonomy and inclusion.

This seminar will provide a comprehensive overview of the current landscape in vision rehabilitation. We will begin with background on the epidemiology and functional impact of blindness and low vision, highlighting critical gaps in care that persist despite medical and surgical advances. We will then explore emerging assistive technology innovations, with particular focus on AI-driven navigation systems, wearable devices, and multisensory wayfaring tools designed to enhance safe mobility and daily function.

Equally essential to outcomes in this population is the integration of vision rehabilitation into coordinated care frameworks, ensuring patients receive holistic support that addresses physical, psychological, and social needs. Drawing from our lab’s programmatic work, we will present rapid reviews of seminal papers our team has authored, which have contributed to new models of care, clinical guidelines, and novel technological prototypes.

Together, these elements underscore the importance of bridging research, innovation, and care delivery to improve independence and quality of life for individuals with blindness and low vision.

This talk will highlight Sekond Skin Society, a fitness and yoga app dedicated to accessibility and inclusion, where people with and without disabilities can exercise together. Lee-Anne, Founder and CEO, will introduce the vision and mission behind the platform, followed by a “movement moment” to engage participants directly. Centered on the theme of empowerment through movement, the talk emphasizes how disabled instructors leading classes redefine representation in fitness and create a truly inclusive community.

This presentation will focus on the benefits and successes of collaborative partnerships established between Vision Loss Rehabilitation (VLRC) and Acute Care Hospitals and Rehabilitation Centres in Toronto. This coordinated approach to care is ensuring that vision rehabilitation is integrated into individual’s care prior to discharge. 

By strengthening referral pathways and embedding timely assessments into the health care system, we can improve patient recovery, reduce risks such as falls and readmissions, and support independence. The session will highlight recent trends, outline partnership strategies, and demonstrate how coordinated, interdisciplinary care leads to better outcomes for both patients and providers.

Polara Accessible Pedestrian Signals (APS) are revolutionizing how cities and rural communities approach inclusivity in infrastructure. As urban and rural areas alike seek to build smarter, more equitable environments, Polara’s APS technology stands at the forefront—bridging accessibility gaps, enhancing public safety, and promoting universal design principles that benefit all pedestrians. Looking ahead, the future of APS is deeply intertwined with smart city technologies and inclusive mobility planning. Polara is leading innovation by incorporating features like wireless connectivity, adaptive signaling, and real-time feedback systems that respond dynamically to pedestrian needs and traffic conditions. This evolution not only enhances autonomy for those with low vision, but also fosters a more connected, human-centered urban and rural living experience. By moving beyond the beep, Polara is setting a new
standard for accessible public infrastructure—one intersection at a time.

There are over 340 million people globally who are blind or have low-vision. The unemployment rate is often cited to be 3X higher for people who are blind or have low vision. For over 10 years, Be My Eyes has offered live and AI-powered visual assistance to blind and low-vision people across the globe. Creating the largest online blindness community in the world, Be My Eyes is available in 150+ countries with almost 1 million users and 9+ million sighted volunteers providing assistance in 180+ languages.

Now, Be My Eyes is introducing its newest product to the community: Be My Eyes Workplace. Workplace is a comprehensive suite of tools that transforms the IT workplace and desktop into a more accessible environment for employees who are blind or have low vision. From AI-powered software that interprets on-screen content to instant connections with sighted colleagues or fully outsourced support services, our tools turbo-boost accessibility on day-to-day work tasks, resulting in increased efficiencies, greater employee engagement, and reduced frustration.

Be My Eyes' Joe Weber will provide an overview of the solution and explain how it can change the lives of millions who need greater independence and efficiency when working in-office or remotely.

Employment inclusion thrives when communities, employers, and organizations work together to create accessible pathways to opportunity. This engaging session will explore how collaboration, targeted community investment, and inclusive employment programs are driving real impact across the Greater Toronto Area and beyond.

Representatives from the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA) will share how Toronto Pearson International Airport, as a major economic and employment hub, invests in the surrounding community and supports programs designed to advance employment for marginalized populations. They will highlight measurable successes and outcomes of initiatives—such as the Propeller Project—that create equitable access to meaningful work.

A program lead from CNIB’s Come to Work initiative will outline how strategic funding and partnerships have enabled the launch of new opportunities—such as youth podcasts that build transferable skills, the SOAR program, and the Assistive Tech Academy—helping participants gain confidence and expand professional networks.

Finally, a Come to Work talent pool member will share their lived experience engaging with these initiatives and how participation has shaped their personal and professional growth.

Together, the panelists will demonstrate how partnerships grounded in accessibility and inclusion can transform employment outcomes, strengthen communities, and create a more equitable workforce for all.

Procurement Assistance Canada (PAC) - Ontario Region was established in August 2006 within Public Services and Procurement Canada to support the Government of Canada’s commitment to a procurement system open to small and medium and regionally based businesses. PAC’s mandate is to ensure fairness, openness and transparency in federal government procurement.

The Government of Canada is committed to giving small and medium enterprises (SMEs) access to compete for government business. PAC supports SMEs by working to reduce barriers and by simplifying the process for SMEs that want to do business with the Government of Canada.

Every day the adoption of AI, the environmental or societal impacts, the valuation of the firms delivering it, the latest innovation or the potential scientific breakthrough make the news. In November 2022, generative AI became real and within 5 days over a million people had downloaded it.  Now we sit at approximately 800 WAU.  That’s what else happened.  Never before in tech have we been so immersed in DAU (Daily Active Users), WAU (Weekly Active Users) and MAU (Monthly Active Users).  How? At a fundamental level, a state of usefulness to AI was reached that we will not go back from. Generative AI has triggered the largest technology infrastructure buildout in history, driving multi-trillion-dollar investments and unprecedented global data center construction.

What does this mean for accessibility and disability? Firstly, new things are possible and they surprise, amaze and excite us all everyday.  New workarounds are possible. I’ll take us through a few of these. Secondly, it has created an important skilling moment.  We need to invest our time to stay “work relevant”, to be present and to influence the evolving workplace. Thirdly, making things accessible is about to change in scalable ways.  I’ll show you what that looks like in Microsoft office. Finally, it’s evolving.  We are already moving from the idea of a copilot, to the design of a truly agentic workplace. This is where the real change will happen.

Join Hector Minto, one of Microsoft’s first accessibility evangelists to learn more about this tech and the call to action he is recommending to organisations across the globe.

This panel discussion between Uber Canada and CNIB will focus on the critical issue of blind and partially sighted riders being denied rides due to their guide dogs. The session will address the challenges faced by the community, including discrimination, stigma and low levels of awareness among some drivers about their legal rights of guide dog handlers. Uber Canada will highlight its ongoing efforts, such as the optional Service Animal Self-ID feature for riders travelling with guide dogs, which aims to improve real-time communication between riders and drivers. CNIB will emphasize the importance of trust, transparency, and continuous improvement in fostering an inclusive ecosystem.

The discussion will explore actions taken, including a mandatory information module for drivers about their legal obligation, rider-informed innovation, and partnerships with accessibility advocates. Moving forward, the panel will call for deeper collaboration between Uber Canada, the community, and regulators to ensure accountability, enhance accessibility features, and promote equitable transit for all. Attendees will leave with actionable insights on how they can contribute to creating a barrier-free ridesharing experience.

Centre[4] Arts is a disability-led, inclusive arts organization dedicated to fostering community through creativity, access, and innovation. Rooted in contemporary arts, we provide art-based experiences that span education, skills development, social practice, and exhibition opportunities.

Through training programs, residencies, and partnerships with community organizations, Centre[4] Arts supports emerging, intermediate, and professional artists, as well as entrepreneurs seeking accessible pathways to creative production. Our fully accessible production spaces bring together traditional and digital processes—from screen printing to experimental media—allowing diverse communities to explore expression, confidence, and creativity with tangible outcomes.

By leading with access, inclusion, and sustainability through the arts, Centre[4] Arts advances a vision where creativity is a tool for both personal growth and collective empowerment. This talk will highlight how our programs, practices, and community-driven approach build pathways for artists and communities to thrive in an inclusive cultural landscape.