October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM)

– By Carol Brochu, CCDP, CHRL, CWS –

October marks National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM)—a reminder that employees with disabilities bring resilience, creativity, and innovation to the workplace. Let’s learn to celebrate that! By shifting from an accommodation mindset to strength-based career strategies, we can empower clients and organizations alike to build environments where everyone thrives. Career professionals have a unique role in helping individuals reframe disability as adaptive intelligence and resilience as a forward-looking strength.

When organizations move from a focus on “fixing problems” to designing for success, disability is no longer seen as a deficit. Instead, it becomes part of the rich diversity that strengthens teams and fuels innovation.

Reframing Disability: From Deficits to Design

A proactive, accessible-for-all approach reduces stigma by shifting attention from individual limitations to organizational design and culture. A flexible workplace empowers employees to bring their full selves to work, reinforcing the value of diversity in the workforce.

As career professionals, we are well-positioned to guide this shift. Our work with clients helps them reframe their stories, see their strengths more clearly, and articulate needs without shame. At the same time, we influence employers and organizations by promoting inclusive hiring practices, strength-based assessments, and strategies that normalize flexibility as good design rather than special treatment.

Negativity Bias and Neurodivergence

Many neurodivergent professionals grow up learning to mask who they are, creating coping mechanisms just to fit in. But constant self-adjustment is exhausting and damaging to mental health. Self-awareness becomes key—first to understand strengths and triggers, then to embrace difference as a source of resilience.

Our brains naturally pay more attention to negative information than positive—this is known as negativity bias. For many neurodivergent individuals, heightened sensory processing and emotional sensitivity can amplify this bias, leading to self-doubt, withdrawal, or burnout.

Yet, in the right context, these same sensitivities function as early warning systems, empathy engines, and drivers of creative problem-solving. As Hebb’s Law reminds us: “neurons that fire together, wire together.” When we focus on strengths, we rewire patterns, drop the “dis” from “disability,” and help clients reclaim power.

For career professionals, this means helping clients interpret their sensitivities not as flaws but as adaptive intelligence—an asset to be articulated and leveraged in career development.

Triggers and Glimmers

The opposite of a trigger is called a glimmer.

• Triggers activate feelings of stress or danger, pushing us into fight-or-flight mode.
• Glimmers are small moments of safety, joy, or connection that help us regulate and reconnect.

Examples of glimmers include:

• A kind smile from a colleague.
• Birds singing outside a window.
• Feeling understood in conversation.
• A task that aligns with personal strengths.
• A sensory-friendly workspace.

For clients navigating career transitions, identifying glimmers can be transformative. By shifting awareness from trigger to glimmer, they begin to rewire the brain for resilience and hope. Encouraging this practice helps clients reframe setbacks and build confidence in their capacity to thrive.

Practical Strategies for Resilience

To create thriving workplaces and support meaningful career journeys for clients, we can encourage them to focus on four areas:

1. Mindset Shifts

• Reframe negative thoughts: ask, “What is this thought trying to protect me from?”
• View sensitivity as adaptive intelligence rather than weakness.
• Use empowering language: “I thrive in…” vs. “I struggle with…”

2. Daily Practices

• Track glimmers in a journal or app.
• Practice mindfulness and gratitude.
• Notice micro-moments of connection that restore energy.

3. Workplace Design

• Advocate for and promote sensory-friendly spaces and flexible work arrangements.
• Encourage predictable routines and affirming language.
• Devise simple strategies for shaping environments that promote effectiveness and comfort at work.

4. Communication Tools
   Develop frameworks to express support needs confidently:

• “I thrive in environments where…”
• “When I feel safe, I’m able to…”
• “One thing that helps me stay regulated is…”

Strength-Based Career Language

Language shapes identity. Career professionals can help clients reshape how they present themselves in résumés, assessments, and interviews:

Résumés

• Instead of: “I struggle with attention.”
• Try: “I thrive in dynamic environments where my ability to hyperfocus drives results.”

Written Tests

• Instead of: “I freeze under pressure.”
• Try: “I excel when I can visually structure complex problems and identify patterns.”

Interviews

• Instead of: “I’m afraid to ask for support.”
• Try: “I bring my best when I work in environments that offer clarity, flexibility, and opportunities for deep focus.”

This subtle but powerful shift in communicating allows clients to frame differences as strengths while naming the conditions they need to succeed. It also gives employers clear insight into how to support performance and retention.

Closing Thought

Resilience is not just about bouncing back—it’s about moving forward with clarity, compassion, and courage. It means navigating uncertainty with tools that honour both survival instincts and the capacity for joy.

As career professionals, we can help clients—and employers—see disability not as limitation but as lived expertise. By reframing negativity bias as a strength and by helping clients seek glimmers, we foster workplaces where authenticity, innovation, and inclusion flourish.

This National Disability Employment Awareness Month, let’s celebrate not only inclusive workplaces but also the career journeys that brought us here. Employees with disabilities don’t just adapt to the workplace—they help transform it.

Portions of this article include content modified from text generated by AI.