Disclosure of Disabilities

"We prefer to educate our members on self-identification and allow them to make the decision best for them"

Disclosure of a disability is an important consideration for employers, but also a sensitive notion. An organization wants to offer everything to make people a high performer, but they cannot fully realize those resources of employees chose not to disclose. In effect, it is the individual’s responsibility (and choice) to communicate with the organization so that the organization can offer whatever it is that will improve their individual performance. However, it's also the individual's choice if they would like support from the company. It's important that IWDs can have resources to explore their options, consider what benefits come from disclosing, and feel empowered to make educated decisions about their disclosure. Materials should help people understand the value of disclosing, but furthermore empower them with the knowledge that they were hired to be a top performer; the accommodations are available to them in order to achieve that performance standard.

There are several channels in which you can make resources available, such as in the employee training materials, on the intranet, and in the internal newsletter. Internal campaigns that focus on employee disclosure can help raise awareness and demonstrate the value of disclosure to the company. The benefits of disclosing can be described as: being able to tailor programming to their needs, accessibility to resources such as the internal ADA teams, and better performance.