Adele D. Furrie

Work History

1996-present      President, Adele Furrie Consulting Inc. (AFCI)

1985-1995          Director, Post-Censal Surveys Program, Statistics Canada=

1983-1984          Assistant Director, Small Area Data Program, Statistics Canada

                         1980-1982          National Director, Canada Fitness Survey (through Executive                                                        Interchange Canada)

                         1966-1980          Survey Methodologist, Social Survey Methods Division,                                                                Statistics Canada

Education

B.A. Economics/Sociology, Carleton University

Areas of expertise

Adele is a researcher, survey methodologist and information management consultant. She has been working in the field of disability information since 1985. As director of the Post-Censal Survey Program at Statistics Canada, she was responsible for the design, conduct and dissemination of the two first post-censal disability surveys – the 1986 Health and Activity Limitation Survey, the 1991 Health and Activity Limitation Survey and the first Aboriginal Peoples Survey (1991). In her capacity as Director of the Post-Censal Surveys Program and her networking within the international disability information community, she also undertook two consultancies — one with the Government of Colombia through the United Nations Development Program and the other with Statistics New Zealand — to design an operational plan for the design, conduct and dissemination of a national survey concerning persons with disabilities. 

Adele, through Adele Furrie Consulting Inc. (AFCI), has continued to work both nationally and internationally in the area of disability information. Examples of her international clients include: The Presidential Task Force on the Employment of Adults with Disabilities (US), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (US) where she designed a set of questions for use on the Harvard Co-morbidity Survey, Statistics New Zealand where she provided advice on the conduct of their first disability survey and the survey methodology and questionnaire design for a survey on disability for North Korea.

Adele is recognized as one of the world’s experts on the collection of information concerning the impact of living with a disability.

Provision of expert advice/expert opinion

2015 – ongoing Reserve member of the Accessibility Advisory Committee to the Mayor, City of Ottawa concerning issues facing Ottawans with disabilities

2015 – ongoing Member of the Seniors Roundtable to advise the Mayor, City of Ottawa on issues facing Ottawa seniors

2013 – ongoing Member of the 6-person Social Policy Committee of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities to advise the Board of Directors on social policy issues affecting Canadians with disabilities

2012 – ongoing Provision of expert opinion in civil litigation between an individual and the Governments of Ontario and Canada on whether the Canada Student Loans Program poses a structural barrier to equal access to post- secondary education for students with disabilities.

2010 – ongoing Member of a 15-person Technical Advisory Group to ESDC for the development of a new strategy to collect and disseminate information on Canadians with disabilities

Most recent research projects

2016 – ongoing  Directed contract to conduct a literature review and environmental scan on short-term disability supports for use by Employment and Social Development Canada

2015  Directed contract to develop background information concerning the population with disabilities who are willing to work but unable to find employment for use by SenseAbility in their 2015 strategic planning session

2014 – ongoing  Member of the research team contracted by CRWDP to explore the issues facing Canadian adults with disabilities who are unable to find employment

2014  – ongoing  Member of the research team contracted by CRWDP to explore the issues facing Canadian adults with episodic disabilities who experience intermittent work capacity

2014  – 2015  Designed and implemented a survey of Deaf Canadians for the Canadian Association of the Deaf

2013  Principal Investigator – To develop an inventory of knowledge concerning persons with episodic, moderate and short-term disabilities and employment through a literature review, an environmental scan of other countries and key informant interviews that will be used by the Federal/ Provincial/ Territorial Persons with Disabilities Advisory Committee (PwDAC) as a primer for future research on these topics

Research Publications

Chapters in books

Furrie, Adele. “Disability surveys in Canada.” In MA McColl and Lyn Jongbloed “Disability and Social Policy in Canada, 2nd Edition”. 2006. Captus University Publications., Section I.1.

Furrie, Adele. “Profiling Canadians with Disabilities.” In MA McColl and Lyn Jongbloed “Disability and Social Policy in Canada, 2nd Edition”. 2006. Captus University Publications., Section I.2.

Furrie, Adele. “Consequences for Community Participation.” In MA McColl and J.E. Bickenbach “Introduction to DISABILITY”. 1998. WB Saunders Company Ltd., pp. 174-182.

Refereed articles

2010          “Advancing Inclusion: How Our Understanding of the Dynamic Nature of Disability Is Informing Interventions That Support Employment”. With  Elizabeth Cahill. IAIABC Journal, Volume 47 No. 2, Fall. (pp. 113–134).

2009          “The Mental Health of Canadians with Self-Reported Learning Disabilities”. With Alexander M. Wilson, Catherine Deri Armstrong and Elizabeth Walcot, J Learn Disabil, January/February; vol. 42, 1: pp. 24-40.

1995          “The Canadian database on disability issues: a national application of the ICIDH”. Disability and Rehabilitation Jan 1995, Vol. 17, No. 7: pp 344–349.

Contact Information: Adele D. Furrie