From discrimination to inaccessible hiring practices, people with disabilities often can face barriers that prevent them from finding work.
Several local businesses are trying to bridge the gap by accommodating and prioritizing the hiring of people with disabilities, who are typically underrepresented in the job market.
The Artery Community Roasters
When William Wells, a self-diagnosed coffee nerd, sought to combine his love of coffee with his passion for helping people with disabilities the result was The Artery Community Roasters, born during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The company sells ethically grown coffee sourced locally by farmers. In keeping with Wells’s vision, all of the company’s staff who roast and package the coffee have disabilities.
“I wanted to create a social enterprise that hired people with disabilities and paid them a living wage,” said Wells, adding that he tries to work with disabled farmers as much as possible.
Wells said he hopes to show other businesses that hiring people with disabilities is not only the right thing to do, but also good for business.
“As a small business, we can’t hire as many disabled workers as we would like,” he said. “So it’s important for us to hopefully inspire other businesses to also work harder at creating diverse workforces made up of people from marginalized communities. But, we are committed to continually growing our team of seven employees and hope we can be successful enough to hire disabled people across the country. That’s the dream and goal, anyway.”
Wells emphasized the importance of creating an accessible environment, which can bring challenges.
“The truth is we, like many other businesses, have a lot more work to do to get where we want to be in terms of accessibility,” he said. “We are currently in a transitional space that has some accessibility features, but some challenges as well. We are actively looking for the perfect space that is fully accessible.”
He cited a number of things the business has done to increase accessibility, including having some employees working from home, only being on-site for events in accessible spaces, as well as keeping security features such as fire extinguishers closer to the ground and limiting light and sound issues that can impact certain employees.
“It’s about creating a supporting and calm space that meets the different needs of our employees,” he said. “I think the work of creating an accessible space for any business is never done. It’s really an evergreen process where businesses have to be committed to do the work and listen to their employees to keep creating the most supportive, accessible and diverse workspaces and teams they can.”
The Owl Cafe
The Owl Cafe, operated by Y’s Owl Maclure Co-operative Centre, first started to provide skill development and employment opportunities to people who were receiving services from the centre.
“The cafe’s purpose is to provide employment opportunities to individuals with disabilities,” said Julie Dewan, the centre’s executive director.
The cafe serves coffee produced by The Artery Community Roasters, as well as fresh food prepared on-site. Since the cafe’s inception, Dewan says that the community’s response has been positive, which has allowed her to not only renovate and expand the cafe located on Morrison Drive, but also to offer more job opportunities across the community.
Dewan says that staff work alongside job coaches, who help with learning tasks and serving customers. “We provide a structured environment using visual aids to support independence and ongoing development,” she said.
She added, “The supports provided are tailored to each individual’s unique needs. The training and experience they gain at the cafe can assist in reaching their goals of obtaining employment in other environments.
“We know everyone is good at something and when you believe in people and provide the right amount of support, amazing things can happen.”
Dark Fork Restaurant
In late 2024, Moe Alamaddine, who established Canada’s first dine-in-the-dark restaurant, brought the concept to Ottawa. The result? The appropriately named Dark Fork Restaurant, which is located in the ByWard Market and gives patrons the unique experience of dining in the dark.
The restaurant has hired and trained more than 100 people with visual impairments.
“Our mission is to provide jobs in the hospitality industry by breaking all the barriers for the people who are visually impaired,” Alamaddine said, adding that the restaurant’s dine-in-the-dark concept helps to “promote the sightless world and create a transfer of trust. In our context, the blind are the guide and the patrons are the blind.”
While Alamaddine typically hires for most of the positions through Indeed, he also recruits through the disability community, including through a partnership with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB).
Once he hires staff, training and safety are prioritized. He said training often takes more than a month, where staff learn about the working environment, including the restaurant sections and emergency exits. To make the physical space accessible, Alamaddine points to a “floor plan in braille so they can navigate easily, as well as we do have a braille menu in place.”
Above all, Alamaddine highlights the advantages of hiring disabled workers, which can include greater retention, creativity and problem solving. “All they need is a chance,” he said.
Hearty Tails
Hearty Tails is a retailer of gourmet dog treats established in 2017 by the Ottawa-Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities. Located on Rosenthal Avenue, the Hearty Tails team is small but mighty, with a focus on customized employment for adults with diverse abilities who are often “forgotten by mainstream employment.”
David Knox from the OCAPDD describes it as a three-person operation equipped with a woodworking shop. “They make the product on the racks, they dehydrate it and we ship it to stores across Ottawa.”
Knox noted that “all of the people who work here are also supported in some way by the agency. I try to foster as much independence as possible. What we’re looking at are people who are underrepresented in the competitive market.”
He added that Hearty Tails uses an accessible former primary school as its office space and that, because all three employees have developmental disabilities, job duties are customized to their unique skillsets, interests and desires.
