Evidence. Rights. Responsibility.
The evolution of disability rights.
ABILITYscaled investigates the laws, policies and systems that shape the lives of people with disabilities. We connect evidence to rights, ask who is accountable, and develop practical solutions.
Based in Canada and guided by the UNCRPD, our work has relevance beyond our borders.
Featured work · New PSA
AI access is a disability rights issue
A little help can change what is possible. AI can be part of that help. The person still brings the experience, the purpose and the choices. Our rules need to make room for this.
Featured work
Everything about us, without us
Rosie and Sam ask what happens when decisions about people’s lives are made without them. An illustrated satire about choice, consent and who gets heard.
Investigations & perspective
Who decides what a better life looks like?
People have the right to make decisions about their own lives. These investigations examine how institutions report, protect and answer for those rights.
Accountability · 17-page report
The UHN accountability report
At Dunn House, access to housing is tied to repeated hospital use. This report examines UHN’s housing model: who can get in, how residents’ choices and rights are protected, and what the evidence shows about costs and outcomes. It asks who is accountable for people left outside the pathway.
Media accountability · Document series
Six Letters the CBC Won’t Say
What does Canada’s disability-rights treaty mean in everyday life, and who answers when those rights are ignored? This campaign examines CBC’s coverage of the UNCRPD and calls for sustained, accessible reporting shaped by persons with disabilities. Its public appeal asks CBC staff to help explain the treaty, Canada’s obligations and the routes to accountability.
Public accountability · Submission
The New Brunswick submission
This submission examines decades of warnings, reviews and preventable harm affecting children and persons with disabilities in New Brunswick. It considers that record through domestic law and Canada’s child-rights and disability-rights commitments, asking whether legal duties have become effective protection. It calls for practical implementation, adequate funding, independent oversight and enforcement.
In development
Disability data · First Look available
Counted but Not Accounted For
Disability data shapes what public institutions see—and what they miss. This First Look asks how statistics reflect people’s choices, opportunities and participation in community life, and how those measures can help hold decision-makers accountable. It introduces a developing inquiry into the gap between counting people and understanding what happens in their lives.
10-page PDF reading copy · Original Word document available
Building the structures for change
Rights need laws that give them effect, organizations built to uphold them, and ways to account for what changes in people’s lives. Our developing work connects legislation, corporate structures, practical implementation and disability-focused accounting and data tools.
In development
Rights into law
Developing legislative proposals that connect disability rights to clear duties, oversight and remedies.
In development
Organizations with public purpose
Exploring corporate structures that connect public benefit, financing and responsibility for results.
In development
Putting rights into practice
Exploring supported decision-making, routes to remedy and ways to reorganise services around people’s choices and participation.
In development
Accounting for people’s lives
Developing accounting approaches and data tools to examine how decisions and resources affect choice, participation and quality of life over time.
Work with us
Better outcomes.
Workable remedies.
ABILITYscaled helps organizations understand complex problems and develop responses grounded in evidence, rights and the realities of people’s lives. We connect research, policy and practical design to identify what needs to change, how to change it, and how to judge the results.
Research and analysis · Policy development
Analytical tools · Marketing and communications
Understand the problem
Clarify the decision, examine the evidence and identify whose lives are affected.
Develop the remedy
Turn the findings into options, proposals and tools people can use.
Account for the outcome
Define what progress means, who is responsible and how results will be assessed.
From focused projects for small and medium-sized enterprises to government initiatives, each engagement is scoped to the decision, the people affected and the resources available.
Support
Two proposed ways to contribute. Contributions are not yet available.