Everyone wants to feel welcome. At home, at your place of worship, in the marketplace. People spend a LOT of time in the workplace. In fact, an average person will spend about 90,000 hours at over a lifetime! Shouldn't that also be welcoming?
How can you make sure your workplace is disability friendly, which ultimately makes everyone feel valued? Check out these suggestions:
1. Include disability awareness training when onboarding new staff members.
2. Schedule a lunch and learn for an informal opportunity to discuss relative laws and how they affect the workplace.
3. Ensure that the workplace is accessible.
4. Educate staff that not all disabilities are evident. Many more employees have invisible disabilities (such as diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, etc.) that they choose not to reveal.
5. As with other holidays and special occasions, highlight July as Disability Pride Month, and October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM).
6. Make sure your website provides access to all of its content, including job applications, employee benefit pages, etc.
7. Respect all employees' right to confidentiality and privacy. Some may want to discuss; some may not.
8. Remember to display posters that promote disability employment.
9. Invite someone with a disability to provide their own personal experience with disability. Your local Center for Independent Living (CIL) may be able to provide some assistance.
10. Encourage (or sponsor) employees to take educational lessons on disability awareness and etiquette. A good place to start would be with the Rocky Mountain ADA Center's free online training!
11. Make learning fun with awareness activities!