Disability as diversity: inclusion in Canadian higher education

In recent years, universities and colleges across Canada have made efforts to increase the number of initiatives, programming and outreach in the area of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). A landscape review found an increase in the representation of EDI in institutional messaging and communications. However, on the face of it, representation and discussions of disability, including the intersectionality of disability with other identities, appear to have been almost absent, or at best, implied, in these efforts. Through reviewing the literature, institutional messaging and formal and informal consultation with people with disabilities and practitioners in EDI including in the disability services field, we set out to determine if our assumptions about disability in EDI dialogues were substantiated and how this may bear on the development of policies, research, resources, programs and services in higher education. Recommendations are offered which reframe disability as diversity, emphasize disability as an identity, encourage an intersectional lens, and highlight promising practices to foment greater collaboration and intersectionality in this space leading to an inclusive higher education system.