Case Study: U.S. Department of Labor achieves improved social media accessibility and greater STEM employment engagement with IdeaScale

U.S. Department of Labor, ePolicyWorks Solving Problems and Raising Awareness

The U.S. Department of Labor’s ePolicyWorks initiative, through the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) in partnership with the National Council on Disability (NCD), set out to address two related challenges: improving the accessibility of social media for people with disabilities and increasing their employment opportunities in STEM fields. These issues required broad, practical input from both users and technology providers to inform policy and program development.

Between March and August 2014 ODEP and NCD ran a three-part online dialogue series on the IdeaScale platform, using targeted communications (ready-to-publish materials, newsletters, social media outreach, tech and STEM community engagement, and direct Twitter outreach) to attract diverse participants. The events generated substantial engagement—Dialogue 1: 43 ideas, 175 comments, 431 votes from 379 registrants; Dialogue 2: 13 ideas, 73 comments, 65 votes from 206 registrants; Dialogue 3: 39 ideas, 139 comments, 274 votes from 193 registrants—and the insights were used by NCD to shape accessibility plans, present findings at conferences, and build new relationships with technology and STEM communities.

U.S. Department of Labor

Katia Albanese

Program Manager