Hiring the best and brightest team members is top priority for any employer. But, recruiting diverse applicant pools requires inclusive hiring practices from the start. Follow these five steps to recruit competitive applicants with disabilities.
There is a growing understanding in the corporate world that employing people with a range of neurodivergent abilities—such as autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyspraxia, dyscalculia, and sensory processing disorders—can benefit a work team. However, these same disabilities can make it difficult to be successful, especially in job interview processes; in response, some employers have established employment resources for neurodivergent job seekers.
Steps to making an online course accessible include
Options in Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, and other learning management systems (LMSs) for making courses are described below.
American Alliance of Museums (AAM) is an organization representing over 35,000 museums, “from art and history museums to science centers and zoos.” AAM supports museums by providing resources and a professional network for those who want to move the field forward in terms of innovation, equity, and inclusion.
The goal of Art Beyond Sight is to “empower cultural institutions to provide accessible and inclusive environments for all of their patrons, including people with disabilities and their families.” The Art Beyond Sight website shares relevant resources—including text, images, audio, and video—for classroom teachers, museum educators, and the general public. Provided they follow user guidelines, site visitors are encouraged to utilize materials and adapt them for their own non-commercial use.
Whether in person or online, concrete steps can be taken to ensure that conferences, meetings, presentations, and other events are accessible to a diverse audience. Begin by thinking about who might face barriers to an event. These may include individuals who are blind or have low vision, are deaf or hard of hearing, have mobility impairments, are English language learners, and are connecting to virtual meetings via audio only.
Women with disabilities in academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers face a variety of challenges.
As institutions seek to leverage the benefits of diversity, application pools for faculty positions have become increasingly diverse, inclusive of faculty with disabilities who bring unique and valuable perspectives and talents to the workplace. However, the inaccessible design of the employment application process, as well as many campus facilities, software tools, services, and online resources, continue to erect barriers to some applicants and employees with disabilities, including those who are also members of other marginalized groups.
Unfortunately, the designs of some informal learning conversations and other activities do not allow individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing to fully participate. There are several strategies your program can follow to avoid this situation. Begin by making sure your promotional materials and correspondence with potential participants explain how individuals can request accommodations, including a sign language interpreter and real-time captioning.
The Riverside Art Museum (RAM) created KickstART kits during the Covid-19 pandemic to provide natural science education through at-home art making. Each kit is designed to inspire young learners to explore the natural world, and each kit has five art lessons with specific themes students can choose from: Animals, Art Around the World, Oceans of Fun, Desert, and Winter.