About AIDE

What is AIDE Canada?

At its core, the Autism and/or Intellectual Disability Knowledge Exchange Network (AIDE Canada) is a tool to connect members of our community to the information and resources that they need. We deliver credible, reliable, and evidence-informed resources in an unbiased and accessible way.

How is AIDE Canada Funded?

AIDE Canada is funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada and by in-kind contributions from our hub network. We do not accept grants of funding from any other sources.

Find Resources for Your Community

How does AIDE Canada find or create resources for the website?

Between January of 2019, when we launched our initiative, and September 2020, when we released the full version of our library and website, we held dozens of formal and informal meetings with groups, organizations and individuals.

You can read about who we spoke to, what we asked, what they told us and how we are using this information in our 2019/2020 Community Consultation Report.

Moving forward, AIDE will remain committed to ongoing input and guidance from our community. Understanding the wide range of individual, family and community needs and priorities is integral to our work. Please check out our “work with us” page for current job posts and consultation opportunities.

Toolkit, Webinar, and Article Resources

You can see a flow chart that describes how we create resources below. This is the process that we follow for resources like toolkits, webinars and videos. We also have other kinds of resources: our “locate” map and our lending libraries.

Visit the Learn Page for articles, toolkits, courses, videos, and more!

Lending Library Resources

The resources that you see in our lending library are selected by our librarian. To keep up to date on current issues and perspectives, our librarian follows a variety of authors, researchers, publishers and self-advocates. To select new materials for the library, she reads book reviews, consults with focus groups and listens to community suggestions offered through the “suggest a book” feature on the library website. “suggest a book” feature.

Borrow free books, audiobooks, ebooks and more from The AIDE Canada Library.

Resource Creation

Topic

Choose general topics and resource format based on consultation with stakeholders

Focus

Meet with key researchers and stakeholders in the field to provide background/context and decide scope and focus of the project

Research

Conduct a literature review to summarize current research findings and ensure we are creating a unique resource

Recruit

Recruit top experts and advocates to be authors/presenters for the project

Create

Authors/Presenters create resource with regular input from AIDE Canada’s content development team

Review

Completed materials are sent for review to both: a) self-advocate or family member b)a researcher or clinical specialst for feedback and edits

Translate

Translate resource into French or English before publication on

Resource Creation

Topic

Choose general topics and resource format based on consultation with stakeholders

Focus

Meet with key researchers and stakeholders in the field to provide background/context and decide scope and focus of the project

Research

Conduct a literature review to summarize current research findings and ensure we are creating a unique resource

Recruit

Recruit top experts and advocates to be authors/presenters for the project

Create

Authors/Presenters create resource with regular input from AIDE Canada’s content development team

Review

Completed materials are sent for review to both: a) self-advocate or family member b)a researcher or clinical specialst for feedback and edits

Translate

Translate resource into French or English before publication on

Program Report

If you have an interest in our work dating back to 2020, we invite you to review our report .

AIDE Canada’s Approach to Ableism

AIDE Canada endorses the social model of disability as described in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We believe that it is society’s response to difference, not the difference itself, that creates disability.

Definition of Ableism: Ableism is discrimination in favor of people who are able-bodied and/or neurotypical.

Examples of Ableism: Some forms of ableism are obvious, like using accessible parking spaces without a permit, or wearing scents in a scent-free environment. In the context of the autism and/or intellectual disability community ableism might mean:

  • Assuming that someone who is non-verbal can’t understand you
  • Workplace employee evaluations that focus on “cultural fit” and exclude quantifiable outcomes
  • Using ableist language

Examples of steps we have taken to minimize ableism on our site:

Accessibility widget:

  • Click the human icon in the lower right corner of your screen to change the website to suit your needs or enable a screen reader or assistive technology.

AIDE Canada connection centre:

  • Staff are ready to connect with community members who would like assistance using our site

Being respectful of individuals’ identity language preferences:

  • We ask everyone how they prefer to be identified and use their stated preference. Some of our self-advocate staff prefer to identify as autistic, others prefer to identify as a person with autism. If you see us using either term to refer to a particular person, it’s because we asked them, and they told us that this was their preference.