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2025 National Disability Employment Awareness Month The 2025 National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) event was held October 15 at the Best Western Plus Ramkota Hotel. This year the event was a part of the South Dakota RehabACTion’s 2025 Fall Conference. There were two breakout sessions offered in the morning. The first featured Jana Burke, Mariposa Professional […]

Disability Awareness at Work 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

May is National Stroke Awareness Month On October 15th, 2022, Nick Kiesow experienced a spinal cord stroke at the T6 level, near the base of the sternum. The stroke left him paralyzed from that point down. Spinal cord strokes are extremely rare—far less common than strokes that occur in the brain. Statistically, spinal cord strokes account for

April is National Parkinson’s Awareness Month Nearly 90,000 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with Parkinson’s each year. Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder. Symptoms generally develop slowly over years and the progression of symptoms is often different from one person to another due to the diversity of the disease. Heidi Aderhold began experiencing tremors

March is National Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Month Michele Snyders was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) on April 4, 2018. She began experiencing weakness in her legs, her foot would drag on the ground after walking for a while, and she had an electrical shock sensation that ran down her neck and arms whenever she bent

Practical Ideas for Accommodating Individuals with Rheumatoid Arthritis Millions of workers are affected by limitations associated with arthritis. Most of these individuals need very few accommodations. Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common type of arthritis and typically worsens with age. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), although not as common, can cause significant limitations in individuals of all

National Mentoring Month by Vicki Stewart January is National Mentoring Month. It is a time to encourage people to become mentors and raise awareness of the positive impact of mentoring. Employment Disability Resources hosted three Mentoring Days in 2023 and 2024. Mentoring Day pairs local businesses with people with disabilities who have expressed interest in learning new skills

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) December is HIV/AIDS Awareness Month. You can learn more about accommodating employees in the workplace. About Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), the virus that causes AIDS, is a life-long disease that compromises the body’s immune system, making it difficult to fight-off illnesses and other diseases. HIV infection leads

Alzheimer’s Awareness & Employment By EDR Board Member Vicki Nelson We first noticed changes in Grandma Nelson during a visit from her then home of Sun City, Arizona to Sioux Falls several years ago. She began wandering around the house at night and going into all the rooms in search of her own. She was lost.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) 2024 Emily Shuman, Director of the Rocky Mountain ADA Center in Colorado, gave two presentations in Sioux Falls to celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). On Monday, October 14, Emily spoke about “Accessible Recreation” to the Downtown Rotary Club. It was a meaningful topic to the Downtown Rotarians since