WIPC+ 2025 CAREGIVER & ACCESSIBILITY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM FOR ATTENDEES
The McDonald Institute is providing funding assistance, on a reimbursement basis, to remove participation barriers for attendees with caregiver responsibilities or accessibility requirements* for the Women+ in Physics Conference (WIPC+) July 22-25, 2025.
If you anticipate making a reimbursement claim for the following, costs, please contact Alexandra Pedersen at the WIPC+ email address (wipc2025@queenus.ca) before July 1, 2025, as there is limited funding for this opportunity.
The following four items are eligible for cost support on a reimbursement basis:
- Either of:
- A) Receipted costs for extraordinary third-party caregiver and accessibility service** (up to 24-hours per day, capped at $800 CDN total with a maximum coverage of $400 CDN for any 24-hour period). Costs must be incurred during attendee’s time at the conference and during travel time to and from the conference. Reimbursable costs include the use of children’s daycare services or in-home health care and personal support services rental use of accessibility devices or software.
- B) Receipted economy class round-trip travel for 1 attendant caregiver***(capped at $500 CDN).
- When travel is required for attendance, differential costs incurred for occupancy upgrades to attendee’s hotel room, if required, to accommodate 1 additional caregiver and one or more care-recipients (i.e., junior-suite room costs over and above the preferred group rate available from the meeting venue). This support is capped to a $300 CDN maximum for two nights’ accommodation.
- When travel is required, on-site equipment rentals required for care delivery or accessibility needs, if not otherwise available to a caregiver or attendee.
- When attendees must participate via remote access via telephone or Internet, the Institute may reimburse a pro-rated portion of receipted personal costs for temporary services. Examples include:
- Required communications service upgrades (excluding installation costs and equipment purchases) for additional bandwidth required for virtual-environment participation. The Institute will only reimburse the portion of service costs that are concurrent with the National Meeting plus an additional day for setup and testing (e.g., a 10% reimbursement of a 30-day upgrade fee used during two days of a National Meeting plus an additional day for setup and testing).
- Any extraordinary subscription fees or costs for Assistive Technology Products for Internet or telephone participation in the National Meeting. The Institute will only reimburse a portion of service costs that are concurrent with the National Meeting plus an additional day for setup and testing.
- Any extraordinary personal service costs incurred for ASL translation, sighted guiding, or interface assistance, capped at $800 CDN total with a maximum coverage of $400 CDN for any 24-hour period. Reimbursements are limited to billable hours concurrent with National Meeting events plus an additional hour of billable travel, setup and preparatory time for each day in which costs are incurred.
Unaddressed barriers to participation:
Please note that the caregiver and accessibility program is regularly updated by the McDonald Institute based on feedback from the physics community. If you anticipate a need that is not addressed in the policy (e.g., carrying the financing cost of a service before being reimbursed), please contact wipc2025@queensu.ca
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*Reimbursements are limited to cases where no other third-party supports are used to pay for the same costs incurred by an attendee.
**Reimbursements shall support above-normal caregiver & accessibility costs incurred as a consequence of attendee’s participation in the national meeting (e.g. after-hours or irregularly scheduled childcare costs, extra elder care costs, accessibility device rentals, etc.). Reimbursement claims should not cover normal-course expenses that are not explicitly incurred due to participation in the National Meeting. Reimbursements for paid care services are not available to support caregivers who have regular unpaid responsibilities for the care-recipient (e.g., co-parents of a care-recipient).
***Travel support for an attendees’ co-caregiver is eligible for reimbursement (to the $500 CDN limit), regardless of the co-caregiver’s relationship to the care recipient. We will reimburse receipted non-economy travel for a caregiver up to the document-supported economy cost of the same flight/train/bus, limited to the travel-cost cap cited above.