Eight million Canadians aged 15 and older live with a disability, equating to nearly one in four men and nearly one in three women, according to data from Statistics Canada.
Yet health care systems and higher education can present barriers for people living with disabilities, including restrictive eligibility criteria, inaccessible study environments, and limited inclusion in decision-making, shaping whose bodies are studied, whose knowledge counts, and whose health outcomes are prioritized.
To fill this gap in the health care domain, the University of Ottawa Faculty of Medicine is preparing to launch yet another first-of-its-kind program in Canada.
The new Master of Applied Science in Accessibility in Biomedicine was designed to graduate experts in the design of inclusive research environments—that is, creating spaces where barriers are removed for all to participate, and where research of value can be carried out with and for broader segments of the public.
And it’s urgently needed, coming at a time when demand for such expertise is accelerating.
Program graduates will understand what accessibility barriers are, who experiences them, and how to remove them—ensuring more people can participate fully in the biomedical and clinical research ecosystem, and ultimately contributing to efforts to improve health.
Reshaping ecosystems
Current biomedical and medical research ecosystems are typically non-accessible, explains Dr. Emilio Alarcon, a primary driver and designer of the program.
“Have you ever been at an airport where you’re struggling to understand what is being announced?” asks Dr. Alarcon, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology. “Well, that is how many processes and procedures are for those of us with disabilities.”
He says that the solution lies not in helping people navigate these barriers, but in redesigning the systems that create them.
“Our graduate program will be a paradigm-shifter in biomedical and medical spaces, as learners will be trained to actually reshape these ecosystems to include diverse perspectives and experiences,” he explains.
Participants—namely, scientists and health care professionals—will be trained on state-of-the-art accessibility practices, leading to meaningful and effective engagement and co-creation activities with people with disabilities and other underserved groups.
In uniting the non-traditional disciplines of medicine, biomedical research, critical disability studies, community engagement, sociology, and equity, diversity and inclusion, participants will learn to shape how accessibility and community partnership are embedded into the everyday practices and processes in biomedical and medical research spaces.
“Our graduate program will be a paradigm-shifter in biomedical and medical spaces.”
Dr. Emilio Alarcon
— Co-designer of the new Master of Applied Science in Accessibility in Biomedicine program
A Canadian first
The new program is the first graduate-level program in Canada to incorporate the perspectives of experts and people with lived and living experience of disability into its curriculum. Participants are mentored into creating their own projects, proposing their own questions to form the basis of their work. It’s a truly new way of learning, creating more competencies for learners than a traditional supervised thesis.
In fact, Dr. Alarcon feels it’s possibly even a first worldwide, the only program specifically designed to bring expertise in the accessibility space for healthcare workers and biomedical scientists in an accessible and flexible format.
“There are close competitors, he explains, “but those programs are not specifically designed for addressing accessibility using our intersectional medical and social sciences/cultural lenses.”
As the Faculty of Medicine’s first completely online program, accessibility isn't just the subject—it's built into the program.
The 12-month graduate program is delivered asynchronously (on one’s own schedule) on a full- or part-time basis, and is offered in English or French. Participants complete a hands-on, community-partnered project in collaboration with hospitals, research institutes or non-profit organizations, or a capstone project based on self-guided learning.
A growing demand for an essential skillset
The program was developed in response to the evolving need for greater accessibility, equity, and community-oriented spaces in biomedical and health care fields. The program has been in development for many years, and the Faculty of Medicine is thrilled to see it come to fruition.
Dr. Nadine Wiper-Bergeron is the vice-dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies at the Faculty. Working behind the scenes on this program for years, she says expectations from the Tri-agencies (Canada’s three federal research funding bodies) are making accessibility non-optional—and the need for expertise is immediate.
“As demand for skilled professionals in this field continues to rise, the consequences of not developing this expertise are becoming more significant,” she says. “It’s now considered an essential skillset for all researchers and clinical researchers.
“Institutions that don’t upgrade their expertise in accessibility risk undermining their funding competitiveness, constraining their research impact, and compromising their ethical practice.”
“As demand for skilled professionals in [accessibility] continues to rise, the consequences of not developing this expertise are becoming more significant.”
Dr. Nadine Wiper-Bergeron
— Vice-dean of graduate and postdoctoral studies
Despite recognizing the importance of diverse experiences in research and health care, many researchers and providers are not fully trained to identify accessibility barriers. These barriers can create an environment where learners, patients, and workers may not feel fully understood.
“Navigating both health care and research as both a patient and a learner with a disability has presented with significant challenges which, in my opinion despite best intentions, are generally not fully addressed in a typical science program,” says Josh Zeldin, a graduate student in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine who has been accepted into the Faculty’s MD program for the fall. “This new program will enable learners to better understand barriers that people with disabilities face in these fields.”
Lived experience contributions
The program centres first-person perspectives to ensure care, research and innovation are informed by real-world experiences across the full spectrum of accessibility.
Expertise and insights will be shared by persons with lived experience of visible and hidden disability; chronic illness, mental health and neurodivergence; sensory, cognitive and mobility differences; and intersectional and system-level accessibility barriers.
Dr. Michael Quon, a professor in the Department of Medicine and physician at The Ottawa Hospital, is contributing to the program, including sharing his lived experience. Having overcome his reluctance to discuss working with a disability, he now sees it as an opportunity to foster inclusion, writing in The Lancet that “sharing experiences and perspectives helps create a more inclusive culture.”
Practical action to advance equity
Dr. Rishi Kapur, assistant dean of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, says the program supports the Faculty of Medicine’s ongoing mandate to invest in and strengthen a culture that is inclusive and accessible for all.
“The Faculty is excited to support this innovative program, which will help meet a deep need to improve education on disability, accessibility, diversity and inclusion for both clinical and non-clinical students,” he says.
Dr. Awad Ibrahim, vice-provost of Equity, Diversity and Inclusive Excellence at the University, seconds this institutional support, explaining that accessibility is the kernel of uOttawa’s new Equity, Diversity and Inclusive Excellence institutional strategy.
“First in the nation, this urgently needed program has my full support,” says Dr. Ibrahim. “It fills one's heart with joy and hope—a courageous act toward a just society where all abilities are nourished to their full humanity, and where no one is held back because of their mental or physical abilities.”
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The Faculty of Medicine will be accepting applications in September 2026, for a September 2027 launch. Explore the Master of Applied Science in Accessibility in Biomedicine and its admission details.
Interested in getting involved as faculty or by sharing your lived experience? Contact the Faculty of Medicine’s Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies office at [email protected].
| Support the Faculty of Medicine today! Support the next generation of leaders in accessibility and biomedical research. Your gift to the Dean Jacques Bradwejn Research Scholarship for Graduate Students in Medicine helps talented students pursue innovative research, advance health equity, and drive meaningful change in healthcare and research systems. Donate today and help build a more inclusive future. |