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July 25, 2024
Helping Disabled Workers Get Ahead in Good Jobs: A Toolkit of Practical Strategies
Investing in America’s workers means investing in a workforce that includes people with disabilities. It means connecting disabled people with jobs that don’t just let them get by but get ahead. For employers in construction, manufacturing and clean energy with jobs to fill, ODEP has a comprehensive new toolkit with best practices for recruiting, hiring, advancing and retaining disabled workers. It’s time to create equitable pathways to good jobs for people with disabilities in these industries.
The 2024 NDEAM Poster Is Here! Access to Good Jobs for All
We are thrilled to reveal ODEP’s new poster for National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) 2024! Our NDEAM theme this year is Access to Good Jobs for All. As in previous years, employers can download and customize the poster for their workplace—in English or Spanish. We hope you will roll it out in your workplace to celebrate inclusion and access as we lead up to NDEAM in October!
ADA@34: Looking at Access Through a Wider Lens
The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed 34 years ago and has since spurred significant progress for disability inclusion across the country—except in the workplace. While employment of disabled people has risen to an all-time high, a stubborn gap persists between employment rates for people with disabilities and their nondisabled peers. How to close it? By widening our lens to access—not only to good jobs, but also to technology, mental health support and high expectations. Read more on the U.S. Department of Labor blog.
How to Coordinate and Leverage Funds to Increase CIE
A funding crosswalk is a chart that describes the allowable uses of each funding source that may be available to employment service providers across various potential funding streams. It’s a useful tool that can help providers leverage their resources effectively to increase competitive integrated employment (CIE) for people with disabilities. Learn more in a new ODEP-funded report “Funding Crosswalks: Coordinating and Leveraging Resources to Increase CIE” from the Advancing State Policy Integration for Recovery and Employment (ASPIRE) initiative.
The Low Cost and High Impact of Accommodating Employees: Small Business Webinar
Workplace accommodations are often easier to provide and cost less than employers think. In fact, 56% of accommodations cost nothing at all! Join our webinar on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, from 2 to 3:15 p.m. ET, to learn about the interactive process of providing accommodations, resources available to help small businesses, examples of low- or no-cost accommodations, success stories and more. The webinar, “The Low Cost and High Impact of Accommodating Employees,” is the third in our Small Business Series, hosted by the Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion (EARN).
For Federal Employees: Free Virtual Training on the WRP Talent Database
In celebration of Disability Pride Month, we invite federal employees to join us on July 30, 2024, at 1 p.m. ET, to learn about the Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP), a federal talent database of students and recent graduates with disabilities seeking internships, temporary jobs or permanent positions. You can register for the WRP training below and sign up to access the database of Schedule A–eligible candidates at WRP.gov.