Despite some progress, there is unemployment and underemployment among people with disabilities that needs to be addressed, says Deb Dagit, president, Deb Dagit Diversity.

WorkingNation sat down with Dagit at the 2023 Disability:IN Conference in Orlando.

She says, “The ADA [The Americans with Disabilities Act] made a huge difference in accommodations and being able to navigate in public. But as far as employment, the employment rate for people with disabilities did not improve.”

Dagit – who identifies as a short-statured woman with brittle bones and PTSD who is hard of hearing – began her work helping people with disabilities get employment when she was denied promotions at a semiconductor company in the 1980’s.

She says she worked with “organizations to try new ways of getting disability on par with other dimensions of diversity – really looking at it as a market, as a source of talent, and figuring out what the barriers were.”

Learn more about Deb Dagit Diversity.