Embracing Inclusive Employment to Celebrate ADA’s 34th Anniversary

By Nicole Fuller

This year marks 34 years since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a monumental civil rights law protecting the rights of people with disabilities in public life. I hope by now, you’ve read the letter from our CEO Dr. Jacqueline Rodriguez, sharing updates from NCLD’s latest efforts to make the workforce more inclusive. 

Last week, I attended Disability:IN’s annual conference in Las Vegas. On Wednesday evening, nearly 3000 people attended the Disability Pride Celebration. Peep the photo of my colleague Nick and me! Our colleague also attended Maura virtually.

In honor of the ADA’s 34th anniversary, I’d love to share my highlights from last week: 

1. The Neurodiversity@Work Employer Roundtable hosted presentations and an open house featuring stories and insights to help organizations and employers embark on and scale their efforts and initiatives to support neurodivergent employees. I was lucky enough to get in the room because there was a line out the door for this event! Both during and outside of this session, we had the opportunity to connect with those doing incredible work focused specifically on neurodiversity.
2. Technology plays an immense role. While artificial intelligence (AI) has incredible potential and known (and unknown) limitations, AI and large language models can complement existing accessibility and accommodations tools and solutions. If technology is designed with inclusive frameworks, I see enormous potential for improving accessibility for people with learning disabilities in the workplace. 
3. There was an overarching sentiment of,  “It’s the environment that needs to change, not the person.” The focus was on inclusive and universal employment practices, training managers, and developing and scaling employee and business disability and neurodiversity resource groups. 

We celebrate learning, growth, and progress for this ADA anniversary. We also recommit to the work that still needs to be done for people with learning disabilities, from K-12 education to postsecondary education to employment. 

Finally, we have some important data and insights about LD perspectives on employment, from getting a job to requesting accommodations, in the works. Stay tuned! 👀