Community Interaction, Essay Example

For this assignment, I attended the “The Forgotten Diversity Segment: How Employees with Disabilities Rate their Experiences at Work” seminar given by the National Organization on Disability. This seminar was related to the gaps between employees with and without disabilities. While it seems intuitive that disabled employees should be given the same rights and opportunities as other individuals, this is often not the case. This seminar described these gaps to bring general awareness to the community.

The seminar focused on several statistics that were recently released from national surveys and how this data could be used to ensure that employees with disabilities as equals with employees without disabilities. Ultimately, the difference between these two groups exists both in the hiring process and in terms of worker development. Disabled employees are less likely to receive promotions and raises, and to an extent, are discriminated against during hiring processes. It is essential to educate the community that disabled individuals belong in the workplace, and that places of work should and are occasionally required to provide accommodations for them to be comfortable and work effectively. Furthermore, while the status of some disabilities prevents disabled individuals from being able to perform certain jobs and tasks, there are many opportunities available to them that are within their capabilities.

This discrimination causes disabled employees to rate their experiences in the workplace as negative. It is therefore essential for workplaces to make a greater effort to ensure that these individuals are given comfortable workspaces that accommodate their needs. In addition, they should be treated equally by all managers and coworkers. It is necessary to raise awareness of this issue to enhance the experience of these individuals.

Works Cited

National Organization on Disability. (n.d.). Training Webinars. Retrieved from http://nod.org/research_publications/webinars