NDEAM 2024
The NDEAM 2024 PR Kit is now available! Find it here.
What is National Disability Employment Awareness Month?
NDEAM is an annual month-long celebration in October that recognizes the many ways people who have a disability contribute to businesses and their communities.
NDEAM has been observed for decades. (It evolved into a month-long celebration in 1988. It was originally started as a week-long event in the U.S. in 1945). NDEAM was first proclaimed in Canada by the Province of Manitoba, in 2010. The governments of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario all recognize NDEAM each October. In New Brunswick, the Premier’s Council on Disabilities recognizes and promotes NDEAM. The federal government also recognizes the month.
(In British Columbia, September is officially Disability Employment Awareness Month.)
NDEAM is about increasing knowledge, awareness, understanding and confidence about disability to help break down barriers, and stereotypes, stigmas and misconceptions about it.

With it being all about raising awareness, what’s your level of disability awareness and confidence?
Test your knowledge about disability. Take our Disability Myth Quiz. (You’ll find the French version here.)
ODEN’s annual NDEAM campaign
Each year ODEN leads a campaign for its members to raise disability-inclusive employment awareness. Our annual NDEAM campaign focuses on the many ways disability-inclusive hiring:
- Changes employees’ lives and helps them succeed in the workplace
- Enables businesses to fill required roles from the talent pool of people who have a disability
- Allows businesses to increase productivity, employee engagement and profitability
- Drives cultural change within a business
- Strengthens brand reputation and customer loyalty for many businesses
2024 campaign theme: Championing Disability Inclusion in Employment
Our 2024 NDEAM campaign explores the essentials of embracing disability inclusion to go far beyond compliance, break down barriers and enrich workplaces
The employment rate of working-age (25 to 64) Canadians who have a disability is up. The results of the Statistics Canada 2022 Canadian Survey on Disability show that it’s now 62%, compared to 78% of people without disabilities. That’s good news. For many years, it was 59% compared to 80%.
But the equitable employment journey is still fraught with challenges for people who have a disability. Barriers still abound, include the main one: attitudes.
Perceptive business leaders understand that proactively, fully embracing disability inclusion — not just “ticking boxes” to comply with legislation — is the key to success for everyone involved. It can make businesses and communities alike, stronger.
Global research by The Valuable 500 for its The Valuable Truth Report 2022 found, 59% of businesses surveyed have a dedicated internal role or executive sponsor to advance disability inclusion in the organization.
Championing disability inclusion in employment requires understanding:
- The benefits of disability inclusion
- How and why disability inclusion connects to broader business objectives and the company mission
- How disability awareness can help shift the “compliance” mindset and build stronger, richer, more dynamic workplaces
- Why disability needs to be part of the diversity, equity and inclusion conversation
- Why there needs to be continuing conversation about proactive disability inclusion in business, in employment and in our communities
Disability-inclusion champions also understand the connection to:
- Profitability
- Innovation
- Overall business success
Disability inclusion benefits everyone. It’s important for business leaders to recognize — and champion — that disability inclusion isn’t just a matter of compliance with international and federal human rights legislation and provincial accessibility laws.
It’s also a strategic business imperative. One that can drive growth, innovation and competitive advantage. Quite simply, creating and fostering a disability-inclusive culture is more than a driver. It’s key to continued growth, success and capitalizing on opportunities.
Research and statistics show this.
Consumer spending by Canadians who have a disability is on the rise. By 2030, it will reach $316 billion, up from $165 billion in 2017. So, if you’re running one of the 1.19 million small businesses (97.8% of businesses with employees) that drive the Canadian economy, make sure your small or “Main Street” business is accessible. It could mean more customers.
- Disability inclusion can open new markets for you. Globally, the disability consumer market represents a huge opportunity for businesses that fully embrace disability inclusion, to reach new customers with their products and services. This market touches more than five billion people worldwide. The disability community includes both people who have a disability and the “disability adjacent” market of family, friends and caregivers. It’s a community with a spending power of about US$13 trillion annually.
- Being disability-inclusive with your marketing and advertising can also help you attract new customers in the disability consumer market. Research shows, the disability community is 17% more likely to engage with a brand when an ad is placed within inclusive content and features people who have a disability.
- A 2020 study by Accenture found this: Businesses that are focused on disability inclusion grow sales 2.9x faster than other companies, and profits 4.1x faster.
- There’s a lot of business conversation these days about how the recruitment system is broken. Still, businesses invest a lot of time, effort and money in recruiting staff. Turnover is costly. In a Job Accommodation Network study, 85% of businesses surveyed said providing workplace accommodations helped them keep a valued employee. As well, 46% said it helped eliminate the costs of training a new employee to replace someone.
Throughout October, we’ll focus on:
- Emphasizing the importance of connecting disability inclusion to broader business objectives and the company mission
- How having insights from employees who have a disability can drive changes in how businesses serve consumers who have a disability — changes with lasting impact for success
- Recognizing the legacy of the late David C. Onley, who continuously, fervently and unwaveringly championed accessibility and equitable employment opportunities for all Ontarians who have a disability
- Practical ways businesses can move beyond compliance and proactively towards enrichment of their workplaces and the communities they serve, by fully embracing disability-inclusive hiring practices

Text version of infographic
4 Ways to Get Involved in NDEAM 2024: Championing Disability Inclusion in Employment
1. Make Sure Disability is Part of Your DEI Conversations
- Disability is diversity. Too often, it gets left out of the conversation.
2. Review Your HR and Recruiting Policies & Procedures
- Does your business have policies and programs that support employees who have a disability?
- Are your recruiting and interviewing processes accessible?
3. Test Your Disability Knowledge
- Take our disability myth quiz.
4. Participate in Light It Up! For NDEAM (fifth anniversary)
- Help us light up the nation purple and blue on Thursday, October 17
- Brought to you by ODEN, the Canadian Association for Supported Employment, MentorAbility Canada and Jobs Ability Canada
NDEAM PR Toolkit — available now!
Use the resources in the NDEAM 2024 PR Kit to get started now…get involved in raising awareness about why it’s important to understand and make all the disability inclusion connections that help enrich:
- Businesses
- Work environments
- Individuals’ employment experiences
- Communities at large

NDEAM 2024 Mayoral Proclamations
Mayoral proclamations of October as National Disability Employment Awareness Month enhance the annual recognition of the valuable contributions people who have a disability make to businesses and communities. They also add strength to the call for all businesses in all communities to be strategic and intentional about inclusive hiring.
If you have a Mayoral proclamation/recognition of NDEAM in your community that you’d like us to share and highlight, send us a copy. We’ll showcase it on our 2024 NDEAM Mayoral Proclamations page.
Missed our September 4 “Get Involved” webinar about this year’s NDEAM campaign?
Watch it on our YouTube channel
Fifth Annual Light It Up! For NDEAM (2024)
There’s no other event like this one during National Disability Employment Awareness Month



Light It Up! For NDEAM is the flagship event of our annual NDEAM campaign. It happens the third Thursday of every October. It’s more than a night; more than just a special lighting event. It’s quickly become a national movement that ignites conversation about disability inclusion in employment, in business and in our communities. This year is a big year for Light It Up! For NDEAM! — 2024 is the fifth anniversary of this event.
The race to Light It Up! For NDEAM is on…
For more information contact Dean Askin, Communications Strategist at daskin@odenetwork.com or 1-866-280-6336 Ext. 107