National Organization On Disability

Thought leadership: informed by tracker data and nod's more hands-on work with employers, the organization's thought leadership agenda aims to increase employment opportunities for people with disabilities nationwide by changing how corporate america thinks about disability employment. Through pr, social media, email marketing, speaking engagements, webinars, and the leading disability employer seal, nod promotes awareness of people with disabilities as a valuable talent pool by highlighting the unique strengths they bring to the workforce, identifying and promoting best practices in disability employment, and highlighting the efforts of leading employers in disability inclusion.

The disability employment tracker, nod's confidential, corporate self-assessment, allows employers to benchmark their disability inclusion practices against other leading companies. Employers receive a free scorecard measuring their efforts in six inclusion aspects: climate & culture; talent sourcing; people practices; workplace & technology; strategy & metrics; and veterans' employment. Offered annually--and at no cost--companies can use their tracker results to identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. Hundreds of companies, to date, have used the disability employment tracker to measure their disability inclusion performance.

Edpc: the rutgers employer disability practices center established by the program for disability research at rutgers university conducts research to examine the efficacy and scalability of employer practices. The overarching research goal for the edpc is to strengthen employee-employer trust and improve employment outcomes for workers with disabilities. In 2021, nod was awarded a federal grant from the national institute on disability, independent living, and rehabilitation research (nidilrr). The objective was to build and implement a 5-year rehabilitation research and training center (rrtc) alongside rutgers university, the burton blatt institute at syracuse college of law (bbi), the indiana university school of medicine institute on disability and community (iidc), and harvard university.

Policy: the organization engages with members of congress and other disability organizations in order to advocate for key policy initiatives that are of importance to people with disabilities.

Innovation: two innovation projects focused on improving workplace inclusion through mental health and digital accessibility initiatives. The mental health project aims to help employers identify and address workplace conditions that negatively impact employee well-being, using data-driven models and pilot interventions. The digital accessibility project focuses on making recruitment and employment technologies more inclusive for people with disabilities. Both projects follow a five-phase process: reconnaissance, planning, implementation, evaluation, and communication. They are supported by corporate sponsors like target, hershey, and the coca-cola foundation and involve partnerships with researchers and employers. Together, these initiatives aim to create scalable, evidence-based solutions to advance disability inclusion in the workforce.

Professional services: for companies seeking expert assistance in advancing their disability employment initiatives, nod offers an array of customized professional services from an in-depth briefing based on the tracker data, to disability etiquette training to hiring engagements. Services are offered on a consulting basis delivered by nod staff and an associate network with specialized expertise.