Every organization should run voluntary self-ID campaigns. They should be run regularly, and the organization should report their results.

What even is a voluntary self-ID campaign?

Say you’re a member of some historically underrepresented group: maybe the LBGTQ community or you’re a woman or have a disability. If there aren’t many employees or leaders at your company that share your experience, there is a direct impact on your work performance and for your company as a whole. On an individual level, wouldn’t you feel more engaged at work if you didn’t feel like the only one? Wouldn’t you be more likely to stay at an organization where you feel like a valued team member instead of an outlier?

On the company’s end, they are missing out on valuable talent in communities that make up a huge part of the labor force. Barriers to particular groups of workers getting hired and succeeding at an organization need data to be revealed and removed.

This is what self-ID campaigns help do. It is a process of asking employees to confidentially volunteer their own demographic data to help the organization measure and evaluate the diversity of their workforce.

Employees with a wide range of lived experience add value in many ways, and can have legal implications when it comes to disability.

When are self-ID campaigns legally required?

Section 503 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act says that federal government contractors and subcontractors cannot discriminate against people with disabilities in employment. But passive nondiscrimination rules were not impacting the sky-high unemployment rate for disabled workers. In 2014 the federal government updated and expanded this section to require all federal contractors and subcontractors to create affirmative action programs to hire, retain, and promote people with disabilities with the goal that 7% of employees at all job levels will be people with disabilities.

The government requires contractors to report regularly on the number of employees with disabilities in their company. Companies must use a standardized self-ID form. Filling out the form must be voluntary, and the form must be stored in a separate, confidential file. The form cannot be seen by anyone making hiring decisions, and employers can only use the form to report their total numbers of disabled employees.

Employers can ask their employees to voluntarily self-ID at any time. One of the most effective ways for an employer to stay on top of their disability inclusion goals is to run annual self-ID campaigns. Self-ID campaigns are like advertisement campaign with the goal of getting as many employees as possible, disabled and nondisabled, to fill out the self-ID form. Employers may do this through email blasts, newsletter articles, videos, posters, flyers, and more.

Can employers who aren’t contractors ask employees to self-ID?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) allows non-contractors to invite employees to self-ID as long as the employer can show they are using the information to help people with disabilities. This can include things like launching an affirmative action campaign and measuring progress on meeting disability hiring goals.

If a non-contractor decides to invite employees to self-ID, they must follow all regulations under section 503. This is also a smart thing to do as the 503 regulations were written not to conflict with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

What do self-ID rates tell us?

Self-ID rates tell us a lot about how people with disabilities are doing.

In 2023, the Department of Labor reported the employment rate for people with disabilities was 22.5%. That same year, Disability:IN found the national voluntary self-ID rate was just 4.5%. This tells us two things:

1. People with disabilities are still underrepresented in the workforce.
2. Those who are in the workforce don’t self-identify.

There are a number of reasons why people with disabilities don’t self-ID. Many have experienced negative attitudes at work and fear being fired or not hired if they self-ID. Lack of education about disability means most people don’t know what a disability is and whether or not they count as disabled.

Employers also don’t gather or report on their disability data very often. Because the federal government only requires contractors to report their disability data every five years, most employers don’t run annual self-ID campaigns. Only 24% of surveyed employers include disability data in their annual diversity reports. The lack of regular communication from employers about their disability numbers reinforces the idea that employers don’t consider disability a part of their diversity efforts.

This makes self-ID rates not just a measure of how many people with disabilities are in the workforce but also a measure of how much employers care about their disabled talent. Research from Global Disability Inclusion and Mercer that shows people with disabilities are among the least engaged at work of any traditionally marginalized group. After all, if the employer doesn’t care about their disabled talent, why should the talent care about their employer?

Why everyone should want more self-ID campaigns.

We’ve shown how valuable self-ID rates are to anyone who cares about people with disabilities. (And any person can become disabled at any time, including you.)

Higher self-ID rates will show more people know about disability, more people with disabilities are in the workforce, more people with disabilities are comfortable at work, and more employers care about the wellbeing of disabled employees.

If your employer isn’t currently tracking self-ID rates, you should advocate for them to do so, and if your employer invites you to fill out the self-ID form, you should do so whether or not you have a disability.

Your next step: How to run a successful self-ID campaign.

At Starkloff Disability Institute, we have decades of experience connecting with disabled talent. As people with disabilities, we understand the anxiety and confusion people with disabilities have about self-identification. We’ve seen how little people with disabilities and those that employ them understand about disability and the ADA, and we know how to communicate with the disability community.

Our consultants bring this knowledge and experience to your company. We go beyond checking a box and aim for long-term, sustainable success by removing systemic barriers, changing attitudes, and building an environment where everyone can bring their full selves to work. Only in such an environment will your self-ID rates improve.

To learn more about how companies can run effective self-ID campaigns, join us on September 26^th at our Starkloff Disability Employment Summit. We will also cover topics including recruiting and keeping disabled talent, creating effective workplace accommodations teams, universal design, and more.