• In 2022, 27% of Canadians aged 15 and older, roughly 8 million people, reported living with one or more disabilities that affect their daily activities, up from 22% in 2017 (Statistics Canada, 2023).

• Among working-age adults aged 25 to 64, the rate rose from 20% to 24% over that same period, driven largely by mental health-related disability, now the fastest-growing category and the most common type reported among youth (Statistics Canada, 2023).

• Pain-related, learning, and flexibility-related disabilities also feature heavily among working adults (Statistics Canada, 2024).

These are not people waiting somewhere outside your organization for a special hiring initiative to reach them. Statistically, they are already on your team.

• They are the employee managing chronic migraines quietly through the workday.

• They are the high performer whose anxiety disorder has never come up in a performance review.

• They are the warehouse associate with a learning disability who has built workarounds nobody noticed.

Why the objection persists

The “we have never hired anyone with a disability” objection usually rests on one flawed premise: that disability must be visible, declared, and documented to count. But disclosure is a choice, not an obligation, and many employees have entirely reasonable reasons not to disclose in workplaces where they are unsure how that information will be received. The absence of disclosure is not evidence of absence. It is often evidence of a culture that has not yet earned trust. 

This is precisely the insight behind organizations such as Gateway Association, whose job seeker support does not require proof of disability at all. Participation is based on self-disclosure, because the challenge a person experiences is real whether or not it comes with a diagnostic letter (Gateway Association, 2026). Employers seeking to build genuinely inclusive workplaces would do well to adopt the same posture: build systems that welcome disclosure rather than demand it as a precondition for support. 

From objection to opportunity 

So what should an employer do with this reframe? 

• Start by examining your workplace culture, not your hiring pipeline.

• Ask whether your policies, benefits conversations, and everyday language make disclosure feel safe.

• Build flexible accommodation pathways before someone asks for one.

• Partner with organizations like Gateway Association, whose job seeker and employer support services are designed precisely to help employers move from uncertainty to confident, inclusive practice.

The employers who tell me “we have never hired anyone with a disability” are rarely resistant. They are simply working from an incomplete picture. Once that picture is corrected, the conversation changes entirely, from whether to include people with disabilities, to how to build a workplace where the people already there can thrive openly. 

They are already in your workplace. The only question is whether your workplace is ready to see them.

We have partnered with over 400 employers in Alberta and can support you in hiring inclusively. We match you with qualified people living with a disability, support the hire, and stay available afterward. All of it free to businesses that hire Gateway candidates.