Meenu Sikand
My Journey to Advocacy and Entrepreneurship.
My journey has been shaped by purpose-driven leadership, lived experience, and a deep commitment to putting people first. As a disabled, immigrant woman of colour, I lead with the conviction that barriers do not exist within individuals, but within systems that fail to include them. This belief has guided my work across public service, healthcare, and community advocacy.
Early in my career, I saw how inaccessible policies, workplaces, and public services limited opportunities for people with disabilities. Instead of accepting these barriers as inevitable, I chose to dedicate my professional life to removing them. My work has always been guided by an intersectional perspective—understanding how disability intersects with race, gender, immigration status, and economic inequality—and by the need for solutions that address these issues holistically.
My early leadership at the Region of Peel established the foundation for my impact at a systems level. Over 14 years as an Accessibility Specialist, I guided the implementation of Ontario’s accessibility legislation, developed accessibility plans over several years, ensured compliance across regulated entities, and supported Accessibility Advisory Committees. This experience enhanced my expertise in legislative implementation, policy development, and public accountability.
In 2016, I founded Accessibility for All, reflecting my entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to social justice. As Founder and CEO, I led research on employment barriers and equitable hiring practices for people with disabilities and devised strategies to boost workforce participation across various sectors. This work expanded globally, including presenting to the United Nations on disability inclusion and economic empowerment.
I later served as Executive Lead for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, where I established the organization’s first EDI office and integrated accessibility and anti-racism into policies, planning, and workforce development.
In 2022, I was appointed Assistant Deputy Minister in Ontario’s Ministry of Seniors and Accessibility, where I led the development and implementation of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) 2025. Through strategic policy leadership, collaboration, and public engagement, I continue to promote a barrier-free Ontario.
My journey is about impact—reshaping systems so equity, dignity, and inclusion are built into how we serve people.
In hindsight, are there some things you would have approached differently? What are the new horizons you propose for people with disabilities?
In hindsight, I would have moved more quickly and assertively toward systems-level change. Early in my career, I focused heavily on navigating and fixing barriers one by one. With experience, I’ve learned that lasting progress comes from reshaping the systems that create those barriers in the first place—through legislation, policy, and accountability. I would also have placed greater emphasis sooner on intersectionality, ensuring disability inclusion efforts fully reflected the realities of race, gender, and economic inequity.
Looking ahead, the new horizons for people with disabilities lie in economic empowerment, leadership, and co-creation. This means moving beyond access toward full participation—equitable employment, representation in decision‑making, and inclusive design embedded from the outset, not added later. I envision a future where people with disabilities are not just beneficiaries of policy, but architects of it, shaping workplaces, public services, and communities that recognize disability as a strength and a vital part of our collective diversity.
As a professional well-versed in being a Changemaker, please share your insights on how we need to address complex problems like poverty, lack of housing, etc. What are the key systemic changes we need to make in addition to allocating adequate resources?
Complex challenges like poverty, housing insecurity, and social exclusion cannot be solved by funding alone—they require structural change. While adequate resources are essential, we must also address the systems that produce and perpetuate inequity.
This involves aligning policies across housing, income support, employment, health, and accessibility so they collaborate rather than operate in isolation. It requires integrating lived experience into decision-making, updating legislation to reflect current realities, and holding institutions accountable for results—not just good intentions. Most importantly, we need to move from reactive, crisis-driven responses to preventative, people-centred approaches that value dignity, stability, and opportunity as essential public goods.
True change happens when we redesign systems to remove barriers upfront, invest in inclusive infrastructure and workforce participation, and treat equity as a core measure of success—not a parallel initiative.
As you are aware, women comprise close to 80% of the staffing in the Nonprofit Sector. Yet their salaries at all levels of the organization overall remain lower than those of men in the Sector. What are your thoughts on how this needs to be addressed?
The gender pay gap in the nonprofit sector persists despite women comprising the overwhelming majority of the workforce—and the data is clear on why this must be addressed systemically. In Canada, women make up approximately 70–80% of nonprofit sector employees, depending on the sub-sector, yet they continue to earn significantly less than men. [www150.statcan.gc.ca], [hilborn-ch…tyenews.ca]
According to Statistics Canada, women working in nonprofit organizations earned about 85 cents for every dollar earned by men as recently as 2021, and the gap is even wider in certain nonprofit sub-sectors. Leadership disparities compound this inequity. Data from the Canadian Nonprofit Sector Salary & Benefits Report shows that men in chief executive roles earn, on average, 17% more than women, with gaps of 3–8% at other management levels—despite comparable roles and responsibilities. [www150.statcan.gc.ca] [linkedin.com], [hilborn-charityenews.ca]
The Imagine Canada People First report (2025) emphasizes a structural wage issue: nonprofit workers generally earn 13% less than the Canadian average, and women and racialized women are most affected by this sector-wide undervaluation. Intersectionality is important—racialized, immigrant women, and women with disabilities face compounded wage gaps, which worsens economic insecurity in a workforce that already provides public value under limited funding models. [imaginecanada.ca]
Addressing this requires deliberate, structural steps: transparency in pay, standardised job evaluations, routine pay equity audits, and enhanced board accountability. Funders and governments must also support fair, livable wages through funding models, avoiding the perpetuation of a “care penalty” that undervalues work dominated by women. [theonn.ca]
If the nonprofit sector is to remain credible in advancing equity externally, it must model equity internally. Closing the gender pay gap is not only a matter of fairness—it is essential to workforce sustainability, leadership retention, and the long‑term effectiveness of the sector itself.
