Guest Blog: How Employers Can Improve Onboarding and Training for Employees with Learning Disabilities and Other Health Impairments

How can employers model their onboarding and training to better serve employees with learning disabilities and other health impairments?

When people think about Learning Disabilities, it conjures thoughts of children struggling in a classroom. What is not often thought about are adults in the workplace that have Learning Disabilities or Other Health Impairments who might also be struggling. When someone enters the workforce, a disability does not magically disappear -  Learning Disabilities do not go away with age.  It can be a challenge to know how to support your employees or colleagues with a diagnosis because these are most often “invisible disabilities”   - a disability that can not be observed. Furthermore, the majority of adults do not disclose their diagnosis to their employer.  Over 25% of the population in the United States has a disability, yet only 3% disclose a diagnosis in the workplace.  And, even if someone does disclose, an employer is obligated by law to keep the information confidential.  

So, what is the best way to support your employees?

The ways you support your employees with Learning Disabilities or Other Health Impairments are ways that you can support all employees.

1. Provide information in a variety of formats.
   This is important especially when onboarding or while training. Provide information in written format, audio format, and visual or video format.  Multi-sensory learning is impactful for information retention. Also be sure to have your company devices set up for text to speech, and speech to text.  Providing information in a variety of modalities makes information accessible.  Accessibility to information is one component to make a workplace equitable. 

2. Time and Patience
   Always be patient and give time to your employee to process ideas and information whether in a group meeting or during a one on one interaction. Allow longer response times when you ask a question - you would be surprised how just staying silent for an extra 5 seconds can elicit a response that is more thoughtful or creative. Also, provide extended note-taking time, or ask for a volunteer to serve as a scribe in a group meeting. That scribe can then share the notes or key points with everyone that participated in the meeting.

3. Ask the question, “How can I support you?”
   It is simple and incredibly effective.  Whether someone has a Learning Disability or not, it is a very human question to ask and can foster stronger working relationships. If someone does have a Learning Disability or Other Health Impairment, and you happen to know that they do, one can never assume that you understand everything about a diagnosis or the attributes of the person with a diagnosis. Learning Disabilities manifest in a variety of ways, and each person has their own way of navigating their diagnosis. So, the simple question, “How can I support you?” gives your employee a voice, and it also allows you to learn more about how your employee accesses and processes information.

Remember that often the ways to support an employee with a Learning Disability are the ways that you can support and respect every employee.

Meet Our Guest Blogger

Kirsten Bronkovic
CEO, EmpathED