Some Background
National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), established in 1988, has been dedicated to raising awareness, providing training, and educating companies about the capabilities of individuals with disabilities. This year marks the 34th anniversary of this important month, and the theme is "Access to Good Jobs for All". This theme underscores the ongoing commitment to ensuring that everyone, has the opportunity to contribute their talents to the workforce.
Corporate Initiatives and Achievements
October is a pivotal time for corporations to launch new disability inclusion initiatives, update their stakeholders on the past year’s achievements, and strategize for the future. It’s a month filled with education and training and a flurry of activities aimed at fostering an inclusive workplace.
Our Busy Season
October is one of our busiest months. We’ve been booking trainings, live events, speaking engagements, and helping companies prepare their activities, and discussing best practices in disability inclusion. To assist you in celebrating NDEAM, we’ve compiled a list of what not to do, and a few best practices to recognize and celebrate this month.
What NOT to do
1. You Don’t Recognize the Month: Ignoring Disability Employment Awareness Month can signal to your employees that disability inclusion is not a priority. Remember 15-20% of your employees have a disability. Even small actions can make a difference, and doing nothing can have a negative impact as employees notice activities from other companies, including your competitors.
2. Don’t Align Disability Activities with Open Enrollment: While it might be tempting to combine disability activities with open enrollment, this can send the wrong message. Avoid tagging disability activities, especially self-identification campaigns, to open enrollment. It can send the message disability identity will impact benefits.
3. Don’t Have Legal Drive Your Initiative: Legal is a great resource in any company and they exist to help manage risk. Unfortunately, if legal is driving disability inclusion efforts it can feel like it is “managing risk” or that your company is focused on “compliance” and not truly creating an environment of inclusion. Exception: A person from legal who is also a person with a disability and is active in ERGs and helping create an environment of inclusion.
4. Don’t Host or Participate in Disability Simulations: It has fallen out of favor, but it still happens. Don’t host events where your employees put on blindfolds or sit in wheelchairs and navigate around your building to understand what it's like to have a disability. People with disabilities find this offensive and it can be damaging because it may increase negative perceptions about abilities because you have not learned navigation skills, or other coping strategies people with disabilities have spent years developing.
5. Don’t Overcommit: Be transparent about what you're doing, and what you plan for the coming year. Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Nothing hurts the integrity of a program more than not following through on what you said you would do.
What you can/should do
1. Provide Tools & Resources: Visit the Office of Disability Employment Policy website for free posters, event ideas, and materials to help you launch your activities. This year’s theme is "Access to Good Jobs for All".
2. Conduct Training: Identify your greatest need and train for it. Whether it’s training recruiters on interviewing people with disabilities or refreshing managers on the accommodations process, choose training that will have the greatest impact and schedule it for maximum participation.
3. Engage Your Employee Resource/Business Resource Events: Leverage your company’s employee resource groups or business resource groups for disability-related events. They can assist with trainings, conduct lunch and learns, or organize fun events with community partners. Get creative and have some fun!
4. Review & Refresh Policies: October is an excellent time to review your infrastructure and update policies as needed. The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) offers many tools to assist HR professionals with disability inclusion.
5. Communicate Progress: Use this month to share progress, updates both internally and externally. Highlight new offices, number of new hires, updates on self-id campaigns, revised policies, and any improvements made over the past year.
Incorporating what to do and not do into your routine can make a significant difference. By following best practices and avoiding common pitfalls, you’ll be on your way to having a successful Disability Employment Awareness Month. If you have any tips or experiences to share, feel free to leave a comment.