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A Gen Z Perspective on the 80th Anniversary of National Disability Employment Awareness Month

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What does it mean to #CelebrateValueAndTalent for a neurodivergent early career professional?

By Marvia Cunanan | linkedin.com/in/marvia-cunanan/

The perspectives shared here are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the official views or positions of the National Advisory Board. Many people in the disability community are moving toward using identity-first language in place of person-first language. This is because it views disability as being a core component of identity. In this op-ed, the terms are used interchangeably.

The poster is rectangular in shape with a dark blue background and an array of red, white and blue graphical fireworks of different sizes. Five of these fireworks frame photos of people with different disabilities working in various environments. Below the images, the words “Celebrating Value and Talent, National Disability Employment Awareness Month” appear. Across the bottom are a logo that says, “America 250,” the DOL seal followed by the words “Office of Disability Employment Policy, United States Department of Labor,” and the hashtag #NDEAM on top of the words “80th Anniversary” and the website address dol.gov/odep.

Every October, National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) affirms the talent, value, and ingenuity that people with disabilities of all ages bring to our workplaces and communities. This year’s theme, “Celebrating Value and Talent,” generates space for reflection and highlights how the landscape of disability employment has evolved over time. I’m a disability self-advocate that proudly identifies as an autistic queer femme of color with non-apparent, dynamic disabilities. Over the past few months, I’ve had the honor of interning with Elevance Health after having graduated with a Master’s in Social Policy. I’ve had opportunities to grow my professional skills, knowledge, and expertise. I am a testament to the rapid progress in employment prospects for people with disabilities within the past 80 years, where rates of disability employment have risen dramatically as advocates have worked to protect our rights to community inclusion, and expand opportunities for economic independence.

I’m grateful for this month’s opportunity to elevate success stories from other disabled workers that have become role models in my own professional journey. The rapid growth of enabling technology has created new opportunities for workplace participation, especially when the tech industry chooses to pursue inclusive design and development. A wide range of federal and state resources exist to assist entrepreneurs with disabilities in entering the job market on their own terms, with a “Disability-Owned Business Enterprise” certification growing as an officially recognized credential in several localities. Gen Z builds on the legacy of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—key legislation that has protected our rights to an education and opened doors to new professional development pathways for an emerging force of leaders that apply our expertise and lived experience of disability to enact systemic change.

Despite progress, disability employment rates tell a sobering story. I’ve borne witness to the employment struggles of many of my peers with disabilities. More than one in four U.S. adults, or 29 percent, live with a disability. Yet the employment-population ratio for people with disabilities remains less than half that of nondisabled people—23.2 percent compared to 66.2 percent in 2024. Research on the employment gap for people with disabilities corroborates the urgent need to advance disability inclusion and accessibility initiatives. Young disability advocates face a job market that has recent Gen Z graduates like me vying for professional roles alongside recently unemployed millennial counterparts. When I was in graduate school from 2025-2026, I envisioned bringing my lived experience as a disabled person to work within the public sector. However, decreased funding and shifting priorities limit many opportunities in this policy field. In the realm of employment, the Department of Labor has announced several proposed rules, including removing the 7% disability employment aspirational benchmark that encouraged federal contractors and apprenticeship programs to proactively consider strategies for increasing the recruitment and retention of disabled workers. I worry about what this means for me as an early career professional, particularly as my generation grapples with record-high unemployment rates. For Gen Zs, the pandemic lockdown meant many of us missed out on internships, part-time jobs, and chances to build workplace skills. Automation and generative AI have been replacing many entry-level and junior roles.

Today’s evolving employment landscape complicates NDEAM’s call for “Celebrating Value and Talent.” The theme can carry the connotation that specifically, it is those people with disabilities who can find a job and meet or exceed normative expectations of workplace productivity that deserve respect for their “value and talent.” In my opinion, this mindset can dismiss the inherent worth and contributions to society that disabled people bring to the table. It’s a mindset that can heighten mental health challenges among autistic Gen Z jobseekers as we find ourselves constantly battling autism misinformation and navigating fearmongering rhetoric that diminishes our capabilities. “Celebrating Value and Talent” stands in tension with the autistic community’s assertion that we must accept, appreciate, and advocate for disabled people across the spectrum of access and support needs—not just those closest to an “able-bodied,” neurotypical norm.

The 80th anniversary of NDEAM is a time to recommit to building workplaces where everyone can flourish—where employment is not an exclusive privilege, but an accessible pathway to dignity, community, and contribution. All employment opportunities and work activities can support living independently, as one of the six foundational principles of the National Advisory Board (NAB) on Improving Health Care Services for Older Adults and People with Disabilities suggests. Beyond wages, the workplace itself can be sites of interdependence and community belonging. As NAB member Charles Christiansen reminds us in his reflections on community participation, “Life is inherently a social activity and people flourish when they have others who love, respect and support them.” We create life-affirming workplaces in the pursuit of policy and practices that embrace disability as a natural aspect of human diversity.

I am grateful for the work that disability-run and disability-forward organizations do to prioritize inclusion and access. Many people have come together this month to express their commitment to systems transformation: scaling up programs that support self-sufficiency, dismantling attitudinal and policy barriers, and creating workplace cultures that see disability as an asset.

I hope that beyond this month, employers, policymakers, social service entities, and more, can heed the call of NDEAM: to embrace the boundless opportunities to recognize where progress has been made, as well as the opportunities to bridge gaps between policy and lived experience. To recognize that behind every disability employment “success story,” like my own, there has been crucial supports: hybrid work arrangements; flexible schedules that can adapt when one’s capabilities fluctuate on a day-to-day basis; and kind, patient, and understanding supervisors that allow young disabled early career professionals to make mistakes and help course correct. And, to recognize that behind the disproportionately high underemployment statistics, there are disabled individuals looking for work that offer an abundance of potential and gifts. Their difficulties with securing employment stem from a culture that struggles to accept that among human beings, we all move, communicate, and think differently. As we navigate these differences, it is our collective responsibility to respect everyone’s support needs, areas for growth, and strengths.

Because—regardless of our employment status—people with disabilities all have tremendous value and talent.