For more information, go to www.dol.gov/odep.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2015 Theme Announced

Planning for National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) 2015 is now underway, following the announcement this week of its official theme — “My Disability is One Part of Who I Am.” NDEAM is held annually in October, but its theme is announced each spring to assist workplaces, individuals and communities across the nation in planning activities in advance. “This year’s theme encapsulates the important message that people with disabilities are just that — people,” said Jennifer Sheehy, acting assistant secretary of labor for disability employment policy.

Employer TA Center Publishes Two New Fact Sheets

The National Employer Policy, Research and Technical Assistance Center for Employers on the Employment of People with Disabilities (Employer TA Center) recently published two new fact sheets for employers, one addressing the benefits of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) in promoting a disability-inclusive work culture and one summarizing tax incentives for which employers who employ people with disabilities may be eligible. The Employer TA Center is funded by Office of Disability Employment Policy under a cooperative agreement with The Viscardi Center.

Disability.gov Wins Awards for Communications Excellence

Disability.gov, the federal government’s main portal to disability-related information, recently received several awards for activities on its blog, Disability.blog. The first is a 2015 Silver Award of Distinction from the Communicator Awards for the “No Boundaries” blog post on Hector, a reading enthusiast and disability advocate from California. The others were a Gold Award and Honorable Mention from the Hermes Creative Awards for the same blog post and its accompanying portrait photograph, respectively.

Cultivating Talent for Tomorrow: The Value of Interns with Disabilities — Archived EARN Webinar

The webinar, “Cultivating Talent for Tomorrow: The Value of Interns with Disabilities,” is now available in the Employer Assistance and Resource Network (EARN) webinar archive. The April 29 webinar addressed the benefits of hiring interns with disabilities and how employers can take advantage of the Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP) — a free referral service — to connect with them. The presentation files are available along with the archived webinar.

LEAD Webinar Now Archived: WIOA and the Unified State Planning Process

On April 29th, the LEAD Center, through funding by the Office of Disability Employment Policy, hosted part two of a special four-part series titled “Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) From a Disability Perspective.” Part two of the series, “WIOA and the Unified State Planning Process,” focused on identifying key components of a Unified State Plan, and explored strategies and approaches to ensure inclusion of disability stakeholders in the development of a Plan. The presentation slides and the transcript are available along with the archived webinar.