October is a great time to celebrate cooler temperatures, changing seasons, and Halloween. In the disability community, we celebrate a lot more than that. October is National Disabilities Month, ADHD Awareness Month, Down Syndrome Awareness Month, Learning Disability Awareness Month, and many, many more.
October is also Disabilities Employment Awareness Month, celebrating people with disabilities in the workplace and their contributions and achievements. Studies show that the hiring of individuals with disabilities reduces employee turnover and improves company morale. Employee productivity and attendance are higher as are interactions with co-workers and overall company morale.
While individuals with disabilities have been undervalued for generations, these employees are some of the most loyal and dependable workers.
Several of our students at Same As U also have jobs that they love. Jessica is a hostess at a local restaurant, Grindstone Public House. Ben is an Electronics Processing Associate at Secure Tech Solutions. Grace has worked for over 5 years at Ulta. Maggie, a.k.a. “the Lamp Lady”, assembles lamps for TJ Maxx and Meghan is a fitting room attendant at Marshalls. And we are so happy to say that this is just a short list of our students who are employed.
We applaud and are grateful for companies that hire some of the hardest workers we know and if you own a company, we encourage you to consider inclusion in your workplace.
Learn more about the benefits of inclusion in the workplace at the links below.
Seven Reasons Why Hiring People With Disabilities Is Good For Business
How and Why to Celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month – The Arc
