National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM)

Disability: Part of the Equity Equation

Metropolitan Community College is proud to support National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). Held each October, NDEAM aims to educate about disability employment issues and celebrate the many and varied contributions of America's workers with disabilities. Throughout the month, we'll be engaging in a variety of activities to educate our community on disability employment issues and the role they play in fostering an equitable and inclusive work culture.

Upcoming Events

October 2024 Events will be posted in mid-September.

Disability Employment Awareness Resources

• 31 DAYS OF DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT AWARENESS MONTH (U.S. Department of Labor)
• Job Accommodation Network
  • The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) is the leading source of free, expert, and confidential guidance on workplace accommodations and disability employment issues.
• 5 Tips for ADA Compliant Design
• Disability History Museum
  • This site promotes understanding about the historical experience of people with disabilities by recovering, chronicling, and interpreting their stories. The site’s library contains document and visual stills collections.
• How to Respect People with Disabilities
  • Learning the proper way to act and speak around someone with a disability may not be as intuitive as you may think. Oftentimes, there are ways of speaking and behaving which may be very disrespectful to the person with a disability, causing them annoyance, anger, or frustration. Rather than possibly causing a problem, learn the best way to act and talk, so as to respect people with disabilities.
• ADA National Network
  • Disability Rights Laws in Public Primary and Secondary Education: How Do They Relate?
• Disability Social History Project
  • This resource is a community history project that provides information about famous activists in the disability movement, a disability history timeline, and related information.
• EDGE - Education for Disability and Gender Equity
  • This is a research and development project to create a website, CD, and teacher's guides that will address the need for gender and disability sensitive high school educational materials.
• Journal of Teaching Disability Studies
  • Designed for those seeking information about resources, assignments and course syllabi in the development of disability studies courses.
• Disability Studies Quarterly—the first journal in the field of disability studies
  • The impact of Disability Studies curriculum on education professionals' perspectives and practice: Implications for education, social justice, and social change

• Disability Awareness Class Activity Lesson Plans (designed for children, but some ideas may be adaptable to adult learning)

  • This is a lesson center for disability awareness class activity lesson plans. As classrooms become more inclusive, it's important for every student to be welcomed and treated with respect. The goal of this resource center is to provide teachers with lesson plan ideas that will help students better understand what it's like to live with different disabilities.

• Strategies for Working with People who have Disabilities

  • There are many ways that disabilities can affect the ability to perform effectively on the job. Following these simple suggestions will help people with disabilities to fully participate in work-based learning experiences.
• Administration for Community Living
  • Employment Resources for People with Disabilities and Their Families
• University of Washington
  • Tips for Engaging with Differing Disabilities
• Health Profession Classrooms
  • Strategies for Successfully Including People with Disabilities in Health Department Programs, Plans, and Service
  • Meeting the Needs of a Student with Disability (Australian resource)

The following points should be considered when working with students with a disability:

• Students with disability may also be gifted and talented and/or have English as an additional language and/or dialect. In some instances, a student may require support in more than one element of diversity
• Students with disability can achieve educational standards commensurate with their peers
• Students with disability who require adjustment/s to one learning area may not require the same adjustment/s to another learning area
• Not all students with a disability require adjustments to all dimensions of the curriculum
• Students with the same category of disability do not always require the same adjustments
• Students with disability may require different levels of adjustment over time to reach their potential
• Ongoing formative assessment, particularly pre-assessment, is critical to ensure that learning area content and adjustments align with student needs.