Research Projects

Adaptability Canada is a research-based company for all of our knowledge and solutions. This work has been conducted over the past 6 years and continues today in the following areas:

  1. Invisible disabilities – an internal and ongoing research program to continually develop a deep understanding of invisible disabilities in the built environment, public spaces and in procurement
  2. Accessible Procurement – An ASC funded research program from Jan 2022 to Sept 2023 to identify barriers in procurement within federally regulated organizations and in support of the ACA.
  3. Invisible Disabilities in the Workplace – An ASC funded research project lead by IWSCC from July 2023 to March 2025 to understand barriers in the workplace for people with invisible disabilities.
  4. Disabilities in Retail Environments – A new internal research initiative to understand the unique characteristics of major retail environments such as grocery, department, big box, and super stores and how these environments create barriers to people with disabilities and seniors.

Project

Accessible Procurement: Models for Driving Inclusion and Innovation

Summary: A year and a half research project to identify barriers in procurement to people primarily with invisible disabilities.

Stakeholder groups:

  1. Disabled-owned businesses
  2. Large procurement organizations
    • Internal buyers
    • Procurement professionals
    • Internal departments influencing procurement and suppliers – DEI, accessibility office, legal, financial, executive/board.

Phase 1: Literature Review

Scope: Global literature review focused on:

  • Research areas:
    • State of procurement in large organizations
    • State of supplier diversity
    • Innovation and trends in procurement
  • Regions and Industry:
    • APAC, NA, EMEA
    • Financial, services, retail, real estate, public sector, crown and institutional

Phase 2: Stakeholder Interviews

Scope: Conduct 1 on 1 interviews with active stakeholders in all aspects of procurement.

Stakeholders interviewed: 75 from over 30 organizations

Interviewees:

  • External to procurement: Disabled-owned suppliers
  • Internal to procurement: Procurement officers (senior advisors, contract specialists, procurement managers, policy, technology support, management), Departmental buyers, Legal, Financial, DEI-Accessibility office, HR.

Phase 3: Final Report

Summary: To develop several case studies within a final public report focused on understanding barriers in the RFP process from the decision to buy a good or service to the formal RFP process to delivering to the organization.

Our public report is available now. Click here to get access.

Get In Touch