Events

We Count has a lot of things on the go. You can learn and co-create with us and earn micro-badges to show your effort. Here are some of our upcoming and ongoing learning activities.

All We Count/Digging DEEPer workshops and webinars are accessible, free and open to the public. We welcome people from all backgrounds and experience levels.

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We Count, Future of Work & Digging DEEPer Events

Conférence Un Canada accessible, Un monde accessible

Inscrivez-vous à la conférence Un Canada accessible, Un monde accessible qui se tiendra les 27 et 28 mai 2024.

Organisée par le IDRC, en partenariat avec l'Université Concordia, la conférence CAMA est un événement international consacré à l'avancement de l'accessibilité et de la conception inclusive.

Accessible Canada, Accessible World Conference

Organized by IDRC, in partnership with Concordia, the ACAW conference is an international event dedicated to advancing accessibility and inclusive design.

Regulating the Digital Domain Co-Design Research

We invite members of the disability community, aged 18 years or older, to participate in an upcoming online, inclusive co-design research event. We aim to foster an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives contribute to meaningful change and will work with you to make sure that you can participate equitably. Read More.

Introductory session on Thursday, March 28th, 2024.

Accessibility Standards Development Co-Design Research

In this co-research activity, participants and co-researchers learned about the standards development process, played a collaborative game to develop a standard and then "hacked" the game to make the standards development process more inclusive and accessible to the community.

Session 1 - Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Session 2 - Tuesday, January 16, 2024
Session 3 - Tuesday, January 23, 2024

Integrated, Diverse Living Solutions for Persons with Memory Decline

Learn about recent trends of housing persons with dementia and the MonIA project, which finds solutions and strategies to promote social inclusion and independence for persons living with memory decline. Discover examples and new ideas in the fields of architecture, interior design, urban design, renovations, smart technologies and more — all with the aim of making homes and built environments in general more inclusive and memory friendly.

Tuesday, April 12, 2022, 1-3 PM ET

Disability Bias in AI-Powered Hiring Tools

The IDRC is investigating bias in AI-based hiring algorithms by creating a data set based on the resumes and experience of real people with disabilities. This “synthetic” data set can be used to test hiring algorithms and help us to better understand and improve potential bias in these systems. Help is needed to build this synthetic data from those who have experienced barriers to employment because of a disability.

Session 1 Creating Resumes: Wednesday, March 23, 2022, 1-3 PM ET
Session 2 Creating Cover Letters: Wednesday, March 30, 2022, 1-3 PM ET
Resume Tips Seminar: Wednesday, April 13, 2022, 1-3 PM ET (optional)

Sentiment Analysis Workshop

We Count wants to help small organizations and their members get into the data ecosystem with a free, accessible workshop. In this three-part workshop, you will learn how to complete a sentiment analysis and build your own data set, gaining in-depth knowledge about the process and the tools involved, as well as how to become a part of the data ecosystem.

Session 1 Getting Started: Tuesday, February 22, 2022, 1–3 PM ET
Session 2 Practising: Tuesday, March 1, 2022, 1–3 PM ET
Session 3 Analysis: Tuesday, March 22, 2022, 1–3 PM ET

Designing Proof and Evidence with Minorities and Outlier Data

In preparation for our Minority and Outlier Data Co-design, we’re encouraging everyone to think about the challenge of proof for a small group, even a group that is just one person: you.

Think of something you experience in your life that is difficult to demonstrate. Perhaps it’s an emotion you feel, a value you hold, or a pain you experience. How might you go about proving your experience to someone else? How might you document or demonstrate it? What kind of proof could you produce to convince someone about the validity of your experience?

AI and Disability: A Double-Edged Sword

To celebrate one year of We Count, we’re bringing you a special webinar with Wendy Chisholm and Jutta Treviranus that looks at the complex relationship between AI and disability.

July 22, 2021, 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM (EDT)

The Metric Society and the Unmeasurable

In today’s world, numbers are in the ascendancy, and everything and everybody is measured and evaluated. Join Steffen Mau, Virginia Eubanks and Jutta Treviranus in conversation for a critical analysis of this increasingly pervasive phenomenon.

April 28, 2021, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM (EDT)

Building Indigenous Future Imaginaries

Based on Jason Lewis’s research-creation work, this webinar will explore the concept of the future imaginary and make an argument as to why it is important that Indigenous people engage in creating them.

December 9, 2020, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM (EST)

Inclusive AI with nugget.ai

Participants will have the opportunity to gather insights from previous modules and apply them to thinking critically about nugget’s operations as a skills measurement technology company.

December 8, 2020, 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM (EST)

Inclusive AI for HR

Panelists Shea Tanis and Rich Donovan will highlight some of the potential problems that arise from AI in the hiring process and brainstorm ideas to make this process more inclusive for persons with disabilities.

December 1, 2020, 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM (EST)

Bias in Candidate Selection

Participants will explore policy through a co-design activity with Abhishek Gupta, working in groups to co-create approaches to AI and ML challenges in employment systems.

November 24, 2020, 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM (EST)

Coding to Learn and Create

Looking for something exciting and creative for your kids in November? Coding to Learn and Create is offering a two-day workshop.

Part 1: November 18, 2020, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM (EST)
Part 2: November 25, 2020, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM (EST)

AI Hiring System Policies

Panelists Alexandra Reeve Givens and Julia Stoyanovich will discuss how machine learning models can carry bias when selecting candidates, affecting persons with disabilities and other individual differences.

November 17, 2020, 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM (EST)

AI Employment Systems

Expert panelists Anhong Guo, Shari Trewin, Ben Tamblyn and Chancey Fleet give an introduction to AI and machine learning with a focus on how AI creates both barriers and new opportunities for persons with disabilities in the hiring, training and retention of employees.

November 3, 2020, 1:30 AM – 3:00 PM (EST)

AI and AT Apps

Artificial intelligence is rapidly advancing to think like us and to deep dream through machine learning, so how can it be used to improve accessibility? This three-part workshop will dig deeper into the possibilities of AI-powered assistive technology mobile apps.

Part 1: September 23, 2020, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM (EST)
Part 2: October 7, 2020, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM (EST)
Part 3: October 21, 2020, 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM (EST)

Accessible Surveys

A conversation on accessible survey platforms, hosted by the Inclusive Design Research Centre. Join the discussion with David Berman, Roland Van Oostveen, Pina D'Intino, Julia Foster, Sarah Stadder Wise, Michelle Borgal, and members of the inclusive design community.

August 4, 2020, 2:00 – 3:30 PM (EST)

Bias In, Bias Out

Dr. Toon Calders (University of Antwerp) explains how predictions made using data mining and algorithms can affect population subgroups differently.

July 8, 2020, 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM (EST)