In 2017, CCRW participated as a member of Civil Society at the UN Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities Committee in Geneva with a focus on Article 27, employment. The concluding remarks from the UNCRPD committee for Article 27 included a concern that Canada does not have a policy for employment for people with disabilities. With this in mind, CCRW convened a group of like-minded organizations and held the first Disability and Work in Canada conference in December of 2017.

At the conference, we asked for feedback on the observations and we heard that Civil Society wanted a strategy first, before a policy. From there, the Pan-Canadian Strategy on Disability and Work was created, and over the next few years went through a general consultative process. The DWC Steering Committee published its pan-Canadian strategy for disability and work in November 2019.