Breaking Myths About People With Disabilities
Unemployment rates in the United States for people with disabilities have historically been high due in part to myths resulting in ableism and job discrimination. The Awareness Campaign sought ways to provide information to employers that could help people with disabilities find and maintain employment.
The Backstory
I received a grant for The Awareness Campaign to work with BOLD-choice, a theater company located in Duluth, Minnesota, with actors from the local disability community. The company is in association with CHOICE-unlimited. This nonprofit offers programs that aim for people with disabilities to be consistently included in the workforce. CHOICE-unlimited carries out its mission to have people with disabilities find and maintain employment. Historically, people with disabilities in the United States have a high unemployment rate due to bias, myths, and ableism in the workforce.
The Awareness Campaign, BOLD-choice, and CHOICE-unlimited wanted to dispel the myths about hiring people with disabilities. The Awareness Campaign used the grant funding to design and print a pocket guide that describes several of the myths and tells why they are not true. The guide also offers helpful information about the Americans with Disabilities Act and other resources for employers to hire people with disabilities and keep them employed. The guide was distributed by CHOICE-unlimited to their network of employers in the local community.
The Use of the Characters
As with all other content for The Awareness Campaign, the guide has illustrative characters. The characters humanize the information and make it less daunting.
The Use of the Infographics
The guide’s infographics are also a part of the visual system for The Awareness Campaign. The style of the infographics is effective because the simple elements make the information easy to consume. The same infographics style appears in the series of posters developed for disAbility101.
The Approach and Challenge
The Awareness Campaign collaborated with plain language experts, Zuula, to produce a pocket guide that had pieces of information that were easy to find and consume. Along with debunking myths, the guide also states why the inclusion of people with disabilities makes for a better workplace for everyone. It offers tips and resources for employers to successfully hire and keep people with disabilities as their employees.
