The University of Toronto’s Institutional Equity Office (IEO) works collaboratively across the University of Toronto’s three campuses to build capacity, support communities, and provide leadership in Indigenous, equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism efforts that lead to a greater sense of belonging for all community members. The University is transparent about the EDI work that is happening and shares its progress publicly through their commitments dashboard. https://commitments.utoronto.ca/
For further information, including the University’s EDI Calendar of Events, please visit these links: Inclusion – The Division of People Strategy, Equity & Culture (utoronto.ca) and Events Calendar – The Division of People Strategy, Equity & Culture (utoronto.ca).
EDI DEFINITIONS
Our definitions of E. D. I *per the Ontario Human Rights Commission Glossary of Human Rights Terms.
Equity: fairness, impartiality, even-handedness. A distinct process of recognizing differences within groups of individuals and using this understanding to achieve substantive equality in all aspects of a person’s life.
Diversity: the presence of a wide range of human qualities and attributes within an individual, group or organization. Diversity includes such factors as age, sex, race, ethnicity, physical and intellectual ability, religion, sexual orientation, educational background and expertise.
Inclusion: appreciating and using our unique differences in a way that shows respect for the individual and ultimately creates a dynamic multi-dimensional organization.
Accessibility: A general term for the degree of ease that something can be accessed, used and enjoyed by persons with disabilities. The term implies conscious planning, design and/or effort to make sure something is barrier-free to persons with disabilities. Accessibility also benefits the general population, by making things more usable and practical for everyone.
Access: A critical priority at SCS, ensuring access to our programs and services by those individuals or groups who are typically under-represented and who are equity-deserving.
Belonging: Taking EDI work further and creating a culture of belonging; where all those who interact with, work or learn at SCS feel a sense of belonging and that they can be their authentic selves.
Universal Design: Ensuring universal design principles are incorporated in everything we do, to ensure accessibility for all individuals (e.g. building, products, environments, workplaces).
Intersectionality: People’s lives and experiences are complex and cannot be understood by any one identity category. Our personal experiences are impacted by multiple social identities (e.g., ethnicity, gender, education). The way these identities interact with social structures (e.g., policies, laws, systems, norms) may lead to different experiences for different people or different groups of people (e.g., experiences of opportunity or discrimination). Intersectionality helps us recognize how our gender, ethnicity, ‘race’, culture, language, age, ability, education, income, geography, citizenship status, marital status, religion, sexuality, gender expression, gender identity, family, and other statuses intersect with social roles and structures to influence experiences of advantage and disadvantage. *this definition is from the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) EDI Glossary of Terms.
