Our 2026 season is winding down, and we’re starting the wind-down with an instalment of our occasional Making the Journey series.

We thought it was a good way to end National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2026, which wraps up this week as October comes to a close.

In Making the Journey, we have fireside-chat conversations with business owners and business leaders about their disability-inclusive hiring journey.

Small businesses are the economic engine of Canada — 97.9% of employer businesses in Canada are small businesses with one to 99 employees.

So that’s why we’re starting off our Making the Journey two-part series with the disability-inclusive hiring journey of one of those small businesses — Little Mushroom Catering Company in Cambridge, Ontario.

Since 2012, Little Mushroom Catering company has won 100 awards including the 2019 Small Business of the Year from the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce.

Their disability-inclusive hiring journey has played a role in all this.

Don’t miss this engaging conversation with Christie Johnson, the Director of People and Culture at Little Mushroom Catering Company.

SHOW NOTES

• Episode 48 transcript (PDF)
• Find out more about the Little Mushroom Catering Company
• Contact Christie Johnson: hr@littlemushroomcatering.ca

In offices and on Zoom, Slack or Teams calls around the world, there are four generations of people working side by side.

And they don’t all talk about disability the same way.

There are baby boomer executives who came up through the ranks before specific disability legislation existed; and when language that’s politically and socially incorrect today, was commonplace. For them, the word “disability” may still carry old weight and stigma.

Then there are the GenXers. They’re often managing a paren’ts health — perhaps a parent who has a disability — and their children’s homework, after work. For them, disability isn’t only a workplace topic.

And then there are the Millennials. They’re the generation born starting at the height of the modern disability rights movement. And for some, their schooling began after the first real disability legislation was passed.

And the GenZers. They talk about disability loudly in workplaces, publicly in person and on social media. They don’t whisper about disability. Because for them, it’s part of their identity.

In the workplace, the combination of multiple generations with different perspectives on disability can create real tension. And that’s what we’re exploring in this episode.

We’ve got three perspectives from both sides of the Atlantic for this episode on disability awareness in the multigenerational workplace: One from Canada, one from the U.S. and one from the U.K.

SHOW NOTES

• Episode 47 transcript (PDF)

Research shows, having the disability conversation with children is just as, if not more important than, the adult business and workplace disability-inclusion conversation.

One study by researchers at the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Spain noted, “attitudes towards disability begin to form in childhood.”

The study says childhood is when we “first develop our first notions of justice, empathy and acceptance of difference.

There are a lot of parental and educational ways to instill positive disability awareness and acceptance of difference in kids. This sets the stage for workplace disability inclusion and awareness later.

One of the ways is through fostering a love of reading — while fostering disability awareness — through storytelling and children’s literature that’s inclusive.

That’s what Paul McAllister is doing. He has lived experience being one of those kids who was different. And he grew up to become the founder and publisher behind Monster House Publishing.

In this episode, Paul shares his story and perspective on why getting kids to become disability aware is so monstrously important for all of us.

SHOW NOTES

• Episode 46 transcript (PDF)
• Find out more about Monster House Publishing
• University of Deusto study, Raising Awareness About People With Disabilities Among Primary School Pupils: Impact of an Educational Intervention
• SickKidsHealth blog post, Facial Differences: Confronting the Challenges of Bullying