Adults with disabilities often encounter roadblocks to equity and inclusion in their workplace. When organizations focus on acceptance, they may inadvertently miss creating a more inclusive space for visible and invisible disabilities within their workforce. When leadership acknowledges their team’s varied strengths and capabilities, they can adapt the current work culture, processes, and goals to feature the talents of individuals.

The result is a stronger, more competitive organization exemplifying DEI benefits. Disability rights training will inform your leadership about their legal obligations to adults with disabilities and how supporting individuals to thrive in their field creates a stronger company as a whole. Here are a few ways to include disability rights training with your organization’s DEI strategies.

Organizational conversations

By creating opportunities for people to share their experiences, you’ll take an essential step towards creating an inclusive work environment. An open conversation around disability rights training empowers team members to feel comfortable expressing the many facets of their identity. Including people throughout your organization––not just within leadership––increases worker engagement, improves morale, and fuels cultural change.

In engaged workplaces holding regular DEI conversations, more people feel comfortable sharing invisible disabilities or aspects of their identity. Leadership can identify and highlight skills and strengths that benefit the organization for problem-solving and to create sustained growth.

Develop and implement specific procedures

Organizational conversations often break open work culture to become more equitable and inclusive, but they’re only the first step in disability rights training. Specific outcomes are necessary to make significant and lasting changes in a company.

Work backward from the desired results with agendas, metrics for accountability, and partnerships with disability organizations. You can put DEI policies into action by first establishing procedures in hiring practices, followed by support and advancement opportunities for talent within your company. By demonstrating a culture of inclusion for recruits, you set the foundation for attracting and retaining the top candidates in your industry.

Diversify leadership

When diversity only occurs outside of the C-suite, your organization misses out on the benefits of disability rights training and the broader concepts behind diversity, equity, and inclusion. As part of your company’s recruitment for executive-level positions, there should be accessible hiring practices to ensure you’re attracting candidates with disabilities.

Diverse leadership provides you with critical perspectives that are missing from a homogenous C-suite. You’ll get the experience and insight into continuing disability rights training for your organization while taking necessary actionable steps to implement DEI policies.

Support disability rights training in your work culture

Many people have taken part in a day or days-long training seminars for DEI but have seen no change in their organization, decreasing morale and engagement. Disability rights training should be a part of every aspect of your organization, from recruitment and hiring to onboarding and advancement.

Cultural change happens at every level of a company. By setting goals with deadlines, you’re enabling actionable changes that support a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.

The Simmons Advantage provides disability rights training to help adults with disabilities dominate in their field.

We founded The Simmons Advantage with over two decades of experience in the educational field, creating transformative changes in schools and districts. We apply those processes for instituting widespread change to business models implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion training. The Simmons Advantage believes everyone, especially adults with disabilities, has the right to excel in their chosen field. We work with organizations to challenge preconceptions about their workplaces and inspire actualized thinking about their processes, culture, and impact.

The Simmons Advantage is a partner in transformation. We help companies do more through DEI training focused on adults with disabilities. Schedule a consultation to learn more about elevating your workforce with our disability rights training.