National Disability Employment Awareness Month is October

Take the time in your organization to commemorate employees with disabilities.

Across the Nation, American employees with disabilities are vital to our workplace and economy. It’s more important than ever to accentuate equal opportunities for all people. Flex HR has seen and encouraged HR departments to take extreme measures to ensure policies are in place to allow for the advancement of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the workplace.

The U.S. celebrates National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) throughout the month of October each year. The theme is selected by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). This year, the NDEAM theme is Disability: Part of the Equity Equation, which recognizes the vital role persons with disabilities bring to workforce diversity and inclusion, both in the public and private sector.”

President Truman established the first National Disability Employment Awareness Month acknowledging the need for disabled people to have more accessibility for them to benefit from work opportunities, in 1945. In 1990, forty-five years later, Congress finally passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The ADA enforces that “employers must provide reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants or employees. A reasonable accommodation is any modification or adjustment to a job or the work environment that will enable an applicant or employee with a disability to participate in the application process or to perform essential job functions,” says the ADA National Network.

In our recent article Disability Inclusion in the Workplace, we explain how HR experts are making adaptations for compromised employees by offering that individual the tools or accommodations they need in order to work efficiently.

With the rise of a remote workforce, mainly due to post pandemic acclimatization, companies are focused on disability inclusivity to drive motivation and retention.

President Joe Biden announced in a recent White House briefing that “the Departments of Education, Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration, are helping State and local governments, employers, and nonprofits that hire people with disabilities to access funding for competitive integrated employment opportunities.”

Here’s How your Organization can Recognize National Disability Employment Awareness Month in the workplace:

Host a discussion the importance of disability inclusion
Feature a performer, panelist, or speaker with a disability
Hashtag #NDEAM when posting about this topic to social media this month
Host a lunch and learn on disability topics
Ensure your organization’s DEIA policies are up to date
Confirm your policies are ADA-compliant
Review hiring processes to eliminate disability bias
Incorporate disability training in your company’s onboarding process
Model appropriate behavior

Improving office or at home infrastructure so that employees with disabilities can be better accommodated in their working environment is absolutely vital to your organization’s workplace inclusion. HR professionals should have these policies in place and take the time to review procedures each year to make any necessary modifications.

Flex HR will help outline and define these barriers to break down so that your business’s workplace can be more inclusively suited for those with disabilities.

Flex HR customizes plans for each client, letting you choose as many or as few services as you need, depending on your business. Reach out for more info today! 770-814-4225 or 877-735-3947 (1-877-7-FlexHR)