Meaningful Opportunities for Individuals with Disabilities in the Workforce

Whether an individual with a disability is an employee of a company or an entrepreneur starting their own business, it is important to have meaningful opportunities.  Here are a few wonderful examples of the value in meaningful opportunities:

• Scott Darren Schachter is a public speaker and future recruiter with a learning disability, and has a passion for diversity and inclusion.  He wrote an article in 2017 entitled "Empowering Those with ADHD Helps the Community and Economy" and I think this article still remains relevant in today's society.  One of the key points that he brought up that stood out for me was he stated, "We need to be working with our local officials and businesses to create some form of internship or apprenticeship programs that will match those with ADHD with prospective employers where they can learn valuable work skills, while being able to utilize their amazing creative ADHD mind."

• Ethan Hirschberg is an entrepreneur and recently founded GrowthClick Marketing Solutions, a full-service digital advertising agency. Ethan found his interest in marketing after starting his blog, The Journey Through Autism.  Ethan stated, "As an individual on the spectrum, my goal is to educate, advocate, and inspire the communities around me through my posts, books, and speaking engagements."

•  Will Wheeler is the Founder of The Dyslexic Evolution, a consulting and recruitment company helping dyslexic professionals and organizations reach greatness through dyslexic thinking. He stated, "Being dyslexic, I soon found that once I learnt how to do something (which often took longer than others) I was 10 times better than anyone else at certain tasks.  As I would find different ways to do the task required, which helped me develop creative thinking and novel problem solving skills."

The Resource Key Takeaways:

1. Foundation:  Ensuring there are adequate resources (i.e. accommodations, trainings, programs, mentors, etc) available.

2. Community: We must all work together to ensure we sustain a workforce with diversified talent, skillsets and perspectives. 

3. Investment: It is not solely about hiring individuals for inclusion to diversify the workforce! It is also about the value that each individual adds to the workforce because of the valuable skills and perspective that they bring to the table.

A shout out to some great resources that are helping individuals unlock opportunity doors:

• InventiveLabs: "A place of acceptance to help alternative learners monetize their talents.
• theSpace:  "A non-profit social creative studio for individuals with autism and intellectual disabilities."
• Art Enables: "An art gallery and employment program dedicated to creating opportunities for artists with disabilities to make and market their honest and complelling artwork."