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LiveWorkPlay Celebrates National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) October 2024

National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) is an annual October campaign promoting disability inclusion in the workplace. NDEAM began in the United States following World War Two as an effort to welcome returning veterans into the workforce. NDEAM or DEAM was also promoted in Canada, often sporadically, since the 1950s. In recent years, efforts by inclusive employment advocates have developed the NDEAM concept in Canada into a modern celebration of the benefits of inclusive hiring.


As part of NDEAM 2024 LiveWorkPlay was pleased to attend the launch of Public Service Neurodiversity Week, hosted by our neurodersity champion Sancho Angulo, on behalf of the Infinity network for neurodivergent public servants. A keynote by Tina Namiesniowski, Deputy Minister Champion for Employees with Disabilities was followed by a series of public servants sharing their experiences on their employment journey. Also in attendance was Stephanie Cadieux, Canada’s Chief Accessibility Officer. Total attendance was about 450, with about 400 attending online from around the country.

Joshua Gray, Robert Olsen, Joƫlle Perrier-Olsen, Julie Kingstone, and Keenan Wellar were in attendance from LiveWorkPlay, fielding questions and sharing our story of supporting more than 210 hires in over 40 departments and 44 indeterminate (permanent) positions for wokers with intellectual disabilites and/or autistic persons in the federal public service!


As National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) comes to a close for 2024, we want to congratulate Gabriel Fraccaro on the occassion of his second work anniversary as part of the service team at Mr. Lucky’s restaurant. Mr. Lucky’s is a part of Chef Wesley Boodhram’s culinary experience at the Rideau Carleton (Future Hard Rock) Casino. In the photo Gabriel is displaying his year of service pins, one for each year. He is looking forward to the Hard Rock expansion in 2025! #NDEAM #NDEAM2024