Celebrating National Disability Employment Awareness Month

Each October for more than 70 years, National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) has celebrated disability employment in the public and private sectors. The goal of NDEAM is to call employers to reflect on their progress towards disability inclusion.

The Value of Employment

Let’s look at the value of work for people with disabilities:

• It allows you to contribute your unique skills and talents
• It provides you with a greater sense of purpose
• Earning a paycheck gives you more control over your life, allowing you to make choices and move toward financial independence
• Interacting with people at work gives you a chance to make new friends and develop relationships
• Employment is a great equalizer, which helps you focus on your strengths and abilities

This year’s NDEAM theme, #InclusionWorks, encourages employers and employees to share ideas and learn more about the value of disability inclusion. To learn more, please visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy’s NDEAM page.

In the words of Jennifer Sheehy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy, “By fostering a culture that embraces individual differences, including disabilities, businesses profit by having a wider variety of tools to confront challenges. Our nation’s most successful companies proudly make inclusion a core value. They know that inclusion works. It works for workers, it works for employers, it works for opportunity, and it works for innovation.”