IDRC - Celebrating 25 Years

1993 - 2018

Continuing Our Work During COVID-19

Read the letter regarding COVID-19 by IDRC Director, Jutta Treviranus.

Supports for complying with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)

How do I make my web site accessible? How do I make my office documents accessible? How do I make information available in alternative formats? Businesses and organizations read our AODA Help.

RT @CoLabCoOp: What better way to spend your Thursday than with @Benetech @idrc_ocadu and us? Exploring how to shift power in tech through…
reply • retweet • favorite
FluidProject RT @colinbdclark: Join us at the PPIG 2020 workshop hosted by @idrc_ocadu in Toronto to explore the margins of programming. Who has agency…
reply • retweet • favorite

Latest News

Continuing Our Work During COVID-19

We are fortunate that our team members are able to work from home during this pandemic. We want to extend our enormous gratitude to the front-line workers.

During the pandemic, the demand for the services of the IDRC has only increased and our collective mission of inclusivity has become even more relevant.

We Count - Removing bias and exclusion in the data economy

We Count, a project of the Inclusive Design Research Centre, funded by the Innovation Science and Economic Development (ISED program) will address barriers to participation and employment for persons with disabilities in the rapidly growing data economy. At the same time, the project will tackle bias and exclusion of persons with disabilities in data systems and ensure that these systems (including artificial intelligence, smart technologies, data-driven decision making and data analytics) recognize, understand and serve people with disabilities by creating innovative machine learning strategies and addressing data gaps.

Do you know an inclusion challenge in data systems or the data economy? Nominate your challenge to We Count at our nomination form.

Are you interested in hearing about We Count activities or do you want to be contacted to learn about ways you can participate? If yes then send us your contact information on our contact form.

For additional information and project updates, please visit the We Count website.

Featured Projects

Platform Co-op

In collaboration with the Platform Co-op movement (https://platform.coop/), the goal of the project is to realize the full aspirations of Platform for Economic Inclusion. Together with Trebor Scholtz, the Platform Co-op Consortium and the New School, the IDRC will be developing a Platform Co-op Development Kit with the support of several foundations. The first implementation will be focused on care: childcare, attendant care and eldercare. “The work that makes all other work possible."

Coding to Learn and Create

The IDRC and Bridges Canada is collaborating on the Coding to Learn and Create project, developing new inclusive educational coding tools that support the participation of students with complex learning needs, and sharing critically-needed teaching resources and strategies to help educators teach more inclusively.

Visit the Coding to Learn and Create website (https://www.codelearncreate.org/) to learn more and get involved.

Center on Inclusive Software for Learning (CISL)

This project brings inclusive open education tools and knowledge from the FLOE Project to the newly-announced Center on Inclusive Software for Learning (CISL). Led by CAST, CISL will support the development of an open-source software suite, industry guidelines and supporting research to ensure K-12 students get engaging personalized learning through Open Education Resources. Funded by the the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs.

FLOE

FLOE provides the resources needed to enable inclusive access to personally relevant, engaging learning opportunities for the full diversity of learners and content producers. Through the Open Education Resources community, FLOE makes tools available that transform, augment, and personalize the learning experience.

Automated Personalization Computer Project (APCP) and Morphic

APCP (funded by Technology Innovation Program of the Rehabilitation Services Administration, U.S. Deptartment of Education) - In collaboration with the American Job Centers, community colleges, and high schools, the APCP project will help take the auto-personalization function of the Global Public Inclusive Infrastructure (GPII) from the proof-of-concept stage through to a high-quality, broadly-used open source implementation. Led by the TRACE Center at the University of Maryland, the IDRC is contributing to the project’s overall software architecture, security and web personalization infrastructure, and individualized metrics-gathering tools.

Morphic makes it easy to discover and adjust settings and features that can make the computer easier to use. By saving your settings in a secure and private cloud vault, Morphic can instantly apply them when you log in to any Morphic-enabled computer. For more information see the Morphic website (https://morphic.world/).

We Count

We Count, a project of the Inclusive Design Research Centre, funded by the Innovation Science and Economic Development (ISED program) will address barriers to participation and employment for persons with disabilities in the rapidly growing data economy. At the same time, the project will tackle bias and exclusion of persons with disabilities in data systems and ensure that these systems (including artificial intelligence, smart technologies, data-driven decision making and data analytics) recognize, understand and serve people with disabilities by creating innovative machine learning strategies and addressing data gaps.

Inclusive Cities

Inclusive Cities - the IDRC is working with the Sidewalk Toronto team to help create accessibility and inclusion principles. Sidewalk Toronto is a joint effort between Alphabet’s Sidewalk Labs and Waterfront Toronto to use smart technology and new construction techniques to develop a piece of land on Toronto’s eastern waterfront.