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 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!
By Maggie Sims with the Rocky Mountain ADA Center
For assistance in implementing these ideas, please contact Vicki Stewart at Employment Disability Resources at [email protected].
July 3 – July 31
REFOCUS Exhibit
In partnership with Serendipity Studios
Shriver Square
The core mission of Refocus is to bridge the gap between initial perceptions and the rich human experiences that lie beneath visible disabilities. People with visible disabilities often face immediate assumptions and judgments due to their conditions, a reality they cannot conceal. Refocus challenges these preconceived notions through the powerful medium of photography, with the aim of telling unique stories, dismantling stigmas and challenging misconceptions. This traveling exhibit is the result of a unique collaboration between two nonprofits in the local community, Rare by Design and Untitled.10, and photographer Hollie Leggett. Learn more here.
July 15 • 6 PM
Beer and Bingo
Severance Brewing
An evening of craft beer, bingo and prizes. $1 per pint sold during the event will be donated to the ADA Sioux Falls Committee in support of the ADA 35 Festival. You can also visit Severance and round up your tab to support the ADA Committee for the entire month of July!
July 23 • 7 PM
Crip Camp
A Disability Revolution
Sioux Falls State Theatre
A groundbreaking summer camp galvanizes a group of teens with disabilities to help build a movement, forging a new path toward greater equality.
July 25 • 12 to 1 PM
Lunch & Learn: ADA Employment and Access
StartUp Sioux Falls
No cost to attend. Bring your own lunch. Panelists include Former Governor Dennis Daugaard, Governor of South Dakota from 2011-2019; Richard Crawford, motivational speaker who is blind; Christopher Cardona, professor at Augustana University who is Deaf, and Vicki Stewart, Executive Director at Employment Disability Resources who uses a wheelchair. The panel will be moderated by Amber Mulder, Senior Assistant City Attorney/ADA Coordinator.
July 26 • 5 to 9:30 PM
The ADA Festival: Strengthening Connections & Moving Forward Together
Levitt at the Falls
A celebration, the first-of-its kind in Sioux Falls, will honor the deeply interwoven connections we all share with people with disabilities. It will foster opportunities for greater understanding and will look to the future as a community of diverse perspectives and abilities. The festival includes vendors, interactive booths, activities, food trucks, and more. The celebration will culminate with performances by artists with disabilities throughout the evening and a Proclamation from Mayor Paul TenHaken.
July 27 • 4 PM
Crip Camp
A Disability Revolution
Sioux Falls State Theatre
A groundbreaking summer camp galvanizes a group of teens with disabilities to help build a movement, forging a new path toward greater equality.
Employment Disability Resources is proud to offer the Disability Inclusion Partner program!
In partnership with the Sioux Falls Disability Awareness and Accessibility Review Board (DAARB), we give local businesses who employ one or more people with disabilities an award to acknowledge and celebrate their diverse, inclusive workplace culture. Watch for the “Disability Inclusion Partner” sticker on the doors of local businesses.
Businesses that recently received a Disability Inclusion Partner award:
- American Family Insurance – Cindy Van Gerpen Agency, Inc. recently received an award:
For more information about employing individuals with disabilities, please contact:
Vicki Stewart, Executive Director
Employment Disability Resources
2900 W. 11th Street, Suite 101, Sioux Falls, SD 57104
605-215-1760 or [email protected]