March’s Employment Council Meeting focused on disability awareness training in the workplace to ensure candidates with disabilities are provided with the tools they need to pursue employment opportunities. In addition, to ensure our employment council members have the resources within their disability awareness training to support employees who have disabilities. The Employment Council also welcomed Microsoft as a new member with Accessibility Program Manager, Solomon Romney, joining the call.
Workforce Development Manager, Trenaya Reid, and Workforce Development Volunteer, Paula Golladay, led the meeting and facilitated an open discussion for members to share what they have observed in their individual workplaces.
Questions posed for discussion included:
- In your company’s training modules, are there any enhancements or resources that you would like to see within your organization’s Disability Awareness Training?
- Which department within your organization oversees the Disability Awareness Training? And where is the knowledge base coming from?
- Discussion on new employee orientation and ongoing training processes
Weighing in on enhancements that may better serve the disability community, Ayana Washington from Easterseals Florida gave an excellent example of how trainings within their organization, shared via simple Word documents, are more accessible for visually impaired/low vision users.
The discussion covered a variety of related topics such as involving people with disabilities in the evaluation of training effectiveness, barriers that may keep applicants from having a fair opportunity to apply for jobs, and experiences members had with inaccessibility.
Watch the full employment council meeting for the full discussion. Monthly meeting recordings will be available on the Workforce Development Program homepage.
If you work for an organization interested in joining the Employment Council, please contact workforce@amputee-coalition.org.