Every October, National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) invites employers to recognize and celebrate the contributions of disabled workers. It’s also a time to take a hard look at the barriers that remain. Although disability employment is a daily reality rather than a once-yearly theme at Aspiritech, we’re taking the opportunity to share our experiences and insights on accessibility, neurodiversity and intentional inclusion with our professional community this October.
Starting on October 8, we’re marking NDEAM with a four-part webinar series built for the people who shape workplaces; this includes public sector decisionmakers, HR leaders and senior executives. Each session focuses on a different facet of disability inclusion, from lived experience to accessibility, universal design and pathways to success. Together, they offer a practical and human case for inclusion that goes well beyond merely meeting compliance standards.
Join us live for four Thursdays in October, or register to get the replays and watch on your own time.
Aspiritech is a Chicago-area nonprofit and Forbes Accessibility 200 awardee that employs and trains neurodivergent professionals, including autistic adults, in quality assurance, accessibility testing, cybersecurity and data services. Our teams deliver high-quality work for clients across industries. Through Aspiritech Academy, we also offer career training that helps neurodivergent professionals build skills and move into meaningful and sustainable careers.
That dual focus shapes everything we do. We know from experience that when workplaces are designed with neurodivergent professionals in mind, the results benefit the organization as a whole, both internally and in partnership with other entities.
We also know from the lived experiences of our community members what is at stake when inclusion efforts stall.
The landscape for workplace inclusion has shifted. Organizations have scaled back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and similar programs that took years to build. Budgets are tight and priorities have changed. Inclusion work in general has begun to appear to be optional.
It isn’t optional, though. The careers and livelihoods of disabled and neurodivergent people depend on the decisions leaders make about hiring, technology and workplace design. When you add in accessibility, it also becomes a matter of navigating everyday living. We can’t abandon our commitments now.
Our NDEAM series is an invitation to stay the course. It gives leaders the context, tools and first-hand perspectives they need to keep building workplaces where everyone is empowered to do their best work.
Thursday, Oct. 8, 1-2 p.m. Central Time
Executives and decisionmakers are often insulated from the daily experiences their policies create. This panel of autistic and disabled professionals, moderated by Aspiritech CEO Tara May, puts those realities front and center.
Panelists will share first-hand accounts of navigating the modern digital workplace from a neurodivergent perspective. They’ll also discuss the human case for why leadership decisions about accessibility matter to everyone.
Thursday, Oct. 15, 1-2 p.m. Central Time
For leaders across government, education and nonprofit organizations, digital accessibility often gets treated as a legal checkbox. In reality, it’s both a strategic issue service-quality issue.
Developed in partnership with RaLytics, this session asks you to consider the digital systems your organization already owns. and who they might be leaving behind. We’ll cover what accessibility compliance actually requires and where the deeper opportunity lies for institutions serious about outcomes and reputation. You’ll leave with practical guidance you can use right away and a clearer sense of which systems are worth auditing first.
Thursday, Oct. 22, 1-2 p.m. Central Time
Accommodation requests are often a sign of systems that weren’t created with inclusion in mind. This session makes the strategic case for universal design to organizational leaders.
Robin Kacyn, Aspiritech’s Director of Inclusion and Outreach, and Paola Callejas, Director of Education, will share real-life examples of how proactively building inclusive experiences and workflows reduces friction and increases productivity to the benefit of everyone.
Thursday, Oct. 29, 1-2 p.m. Central Time
What does it take to move beyond creating opportunities for neurodivergent talent and build pathways where people can develop their skills and thrive?
Jenn Feldman of Specialisterne and Tara May of Aspiritech come together for a candid fireside chat drawing on their organizations’ complementary experience and their collaboration through the Specialisterne Academy. They’ll explore the role of peer networks, employer engagement and workplace culture in creating sustainable career pathways. They’ll also look beyond hiring to consider how organizations define success and recognize neurodivergent professionals for the value they contribute.
This series is designed for leaders with the authority to change how their organizations work, including:
You don’t need to be an accessibility expert or workforce development professional to take part. Each session is built to meet leaders where they are and leave them with next steps for creating a more inclusive, accessible landscape online, at work and beyond.
Across the four sessions, you’ll come away with:
Join us one session or sign up for all four. Each webinar stands on its own, but when taken together, they build a complete picture of what meaningful inclusion requires.
Registration is open now for every session in Aspiritech’s NDEAM webinar series via Zoom. Can’t make a live session? Register anyway and we’ll send you the replay so you can watch when it works for you.
