In a new series, MxD scans the landscape of technologies and trends fueling manufacturing’s ongoing digital transformation: What’s here? What’s coming? And what’s the impact, including on the workforce? This story explores accessibility and the free disability access training MxD Learn is offering to manufacturers in Illinois and Wisconsin through the end of 2024.
The customized training, part of MxD’s suite of efforts targeting the manufacturing skills gap, is aimed at helping companies attract individuals with disabilities as a way to build a more diverse and resilient talent pipeline.
“Manufacturers — whether through lack of awareness or lack of comfort — are often overlooking people with disabilities when it’s time to hire, which means they are overlooking a large group of people who can help fill their skills shortage,” said MxD Learn Project Manager Leslie Robinson. This training seeks to address that.
Here’s more on the training opportunity as well as MxD Learn’s broader diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) initiatives:
What type of training is MxD offering?
With funding from the Department of Defense Manufacturing Technology (ManTech) enterprise through NextFlex, MxD is partnering with Access Living to offer five manufacturers in Illinois and Wisconsin tailored accessibility training that can be done on-site or virtually. The free training will cover topics such as:
- Understanding perceptions of disability and why they matter
- Learning the “language” of disability
- Creating a more inclusive workplace for people with disabilities
Why now?
There are three key reasons, Robinson said.
- Manufacturers need workers: An estimated 2.1 million U.S. manufacturing jobs are expected to go unfilled by 2030, a number described as “staggering” and “crippling.”
- Many people with disabilities are looking for work: As a group, their unemployment rate is nearly double that of people who are not disabled.
- Technology widely available on today’s factory floors is helping to smooth the path: Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are among the advanced technologies that manufacturers can leverage to create more inclusive workplaces.
How?
AR, for example, can overlay step-by-step instructions onto a worker’s field of view. That could help individuals with cognitive or learning disabilities more easily follow complex procedures. VR can create controlled and safe training environments for disabled workers.
Other tools to make the workplace more accessible include customizable workstations, such as adjustable desks that can accommodate a person in a wheelchair. Screen readers, another accessibility tool, allow someone who is visually impaired to read the text on a tablet or computer via synthetic speech or Braille output.
Who needs the training?
The accessibility training is for the full range of manufacturing workers, Robinson said, from executives to factory floor managers.
What is MxD doing beyond the training?
Manufacturers that go through the accessibility training can be paired with interns, or fellows, with disabilities who have had manufacturing-skills training at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois. Wages for the intern, who will have a certificate in welding or mechanical maintenance, will be paid by MxD for 90 days.
Additionally, manufacturers that can accommodate a disabled worker by adding a customized desk or other similar equipment can apply for a grant from MxD to pay for it, Robinson said.
“Everybody tells us they want DEIA to be part of their company culture,” she said. “We are making it possible.”
Interested? For more information, contact Leslie.Robinson@mxdusa.org or mxdlearn@mxdusa.org