We are pleased to invite you to participate in the Dismantling Ableism: Institutional Action and Accountability online survey. We know that ableist barriers continue to exist at UM and have heard from previous surveys that it is time for action. The purpose of this survey is to ask disabled UM students, staff, and faculty and those managing chronic health conditions, including mental health conditions, what needs to change and how it needs to change to inform that action. The data from this survey will be used to create a series of anti-ableism recommendations and to inform the development of an anti-ableism policy for the University of Manitoba. 

This survey is one part of the Dismantling Ableism: Institutional Action and Accountability project. The project is designed to answer the following questions: What is equity when disabled persons and anti-ableism are centered? And what are the complex ways in which ableism operates across the University of Manitoba community and larger research ecosystem? 

The project is managed by Cade Kuehl (Project Coordinator and Research Assistant); and anchored by Dr. Diane Driedger (Disability Studies), and Dr. Reg Urbanowski (Rehabilitation Sciences) with Dr. Tina Chen (Vice Provost, Equity) serving as the administrative Principal Investigator. The study is funded by the Canada Research Chairs Program’s Robbins Ollivier Award for Excellence in Equity.   

Your Participation 

The time it will take to complete this survey will be different for each person. We ask short questions that require you to click one or more response options; and we also ask open-ended questions where you can write as much as you would like (and whatever you would like). If you choose to fill in the optional open-ended text boxes, it may take longer to finish the questionnaire.  

You may exit the survey simply by closing the browser window. If you close your browser window and have not completed the survey, you may return to finish the survey up to two weeks later, as long as you use the same computer and Internet browser.  

Confidentiality 

This survey is confidential. At the end of the survey, we will give you the opportunity to provide your email address to receive a copy of the summary results report. If you choose to provide your email address for this purpose, it will be collected separately from your survey responses to ensure there is no link between your email and your answers. 

To ensure confidentiality, no potentially identifying information you provide will be reported. Your responses will not be shared with others, unless in report/aggregate format (with all the protections of confidentiality as required by the University of Manitoba Research Ethics Board). For example, there would need to be at least 5 other participants with the same characteristic(s) before we would report any information to guard against you being identified. Depending on the combination of characteristics, this minimum number may also be raised to further protect against indirect identification.  

Any quotes taken from your written answers to the open-ended questions will be assigned a pseudonym or generally attributed to guard against identification (e.g., Faculty of Arts student or Bannatyne staff member). Similarly, any indirectly identifying details included in open-ended responses will also be omitted or assigned a pseudonym (e.g., names of employers, co-workers, friends, or family, etc.).  

Your survey responses will only be used in the context of project reports; university and conference presentations; and/or scholarly publications, including dissertations and theses of student research assistants.  

Questions and Contact Information 

If you have any questions about this survey, please contact Dr. Jennifer Dengate (Director of EDI Research & Projects) at Jennifer.Dengate@umanitoba.ca. This research has been approved by the Research Ethics Board at the University of Manitoba, Fort Garry campus (certificate #HE2023-0244). 

If you have any questions about the Dismantling Ableism: Institutional Action and Accountability project, please contact Project Coordinator Cade Kuehl at Cade.Kuehl@umanitoba.ca or Principal Investigator, Distinguished Professor and Vice Provost (Equity), Tina Chen at Tina.Chen@umanitoba.ca. If you have any concerns about the way this study is conducted, please contact the University of Manitoba Research Ethics Officer at 1-204-474-7122 (or humanethics@umanitoba.ca).  

We believe this survey is an important step towards achieving a comprehensive understanding of the diversity of experiences across the disabled community at UM and the actions required to dismantle ongoing ableist barriers. Your honest assessments will help us develop a series of anti-ableism recommendations and to inform the development of an anti-ableism policy for the University of Manitoba. 

Thank-you in advance for participating, or for your consideration to participate! 

Sincerely, 

Cade Kuehl, Jennifer Dengate, and Tina Chen  

Link to survey: https://cssrp.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eysE87k871e4Kpw