Disability Week 2026: 12 disability awareness ideas
Written by Tony Demeulemeester, Co-founder & COO @ Eli
April 2, 2026 · Updated October 26, 2026 · 9 min read
Disability Week 2026, officially the European Week for the Employment of People with Disabilities (SEEPH), runs from Monday, November 16 to Sunday, November 22, 2026. It's the 30th edition. The 2026 theme: "Demystify, simplify, support. Employment for everyone." Its best-known moment, DuoDay, falls on Thursday, November 19. For any company with teams in France, or anyone looking for a disability awareness week to anchor their own program, it's the week when talking about disability at work feels natural everywhere. Here are the dates, what the theme means, and 12 ideas for before, during and after.
Disability Week 2026: dates and theme
- Dates: Monday, November 16 to Sunday, November 22, 2026.
- Edition: the 30th.
- Theme: "Démystifier, simplifier, accompagner. L'emploi pour toutes et tous" ("Demystify, simplify, support. Employment for everyone"), announced by Agefiph on May 26, 2026.
- Organizers: LADAPT, Agefiph and FIPHFP, the three French bodies behind the week.
- DuoDay: Thursday, November 19, 2026.
The theme starts from a plain observation. Support for disability employment exists, but it's hard to navigate. The 2026 edition wants to make that support easier to understand and easier to use, for employers and for people with disabilities alike.
Inside a company, the theme translates into three moves. Demystify: take apart the myths. Simplify: say who to call and how. Support: follow each request through to the end.
Running an event in France? The official site, semaine-emploi-handicap.com, lets you register it so it gets listed.
What is SEEPH?
SEEPH stands for Semaine européenne pour l'emploi des personnes handicapées: the European Week for the Employment of People with Disabilities. It comes back every November and turns 30 in 2026. In English, most people simply call it Disability Week.
For seven days, employers, public agencies, nonprofits and job seekers gather around one subject: getting into work and staying in work. Recruiting fairs, workshops, talks, DuoDay: formats change from city to city. The common thread doesn't.
Don't confuse it with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, set by the United Nations on December 3. The two dates sit close together. A good internal calendar connects them.
Why Disability Week matters for employers
The employment gap is real. In France, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is 12%, versus 7% for the overall workforce, according to Agefiph.
The law sets a target. In France, every employer with 20 or more employees must have workers with disabilities make up 6% of its headcount. That's the OETH employment obligation. Employers who fall short pay an annual contribution.
Many disabilities don't show. Nobody has to disclose a disability at work. In France, getting one formally recognized isn't mandatory. Yet recognition (called RQTH) opens real rights: workplace adjustments, support, funding. When nobody talks about it, people miss out. And the company never knows.
So Disability Week isn't a box to tick. It's a one-week window when the subject can reach every team, every site, every meeting.
12 disability awareness ideas for the workplace
A strong week runs in three beats: raise awareness, get people involved, take action. Every idea below fits a short format that works in the office, on the floor or remote. To move faster, start from Eli's Diversity, equity & inclusion template and adapt it to disability.
Raise awareness: take the myths apart
1. A myth-busting quiz
Five questions a day, no more. "True or false: you can always see a disability." "True or false: a small company has no obligations." The answer lands right away, with one line of explanation. On Eli, the quiz becomes a 90-second team challenge on any phone, with a team leaderboard. Frontline teams play like everyone else. That's the heart of our challenge for disability awareness in the workplace.
2. Talk about invisible disabilities
Chronic illness, dyslexia, mental health conditions, hearing loss: many situations don't show. Share one example a day, with one simple adjustment that makes all the difference: flexible hours, a quiet desk, noise-canceling headphones. The message: disability isn't a rare exception. It's a team topic.
3. Short, voluntary stories
Two minutes on video, or ten lines in writing. An employee who chose to share, a manager who set up an adjustment, a caregiver. Volunteers only. If nobody steps up internally, invite a partner nonprofit.
4. A hands-on experience
Navigate the intranet with a screen reader. Read a low-contrast document. Follow a meeting with the sound off. Run by your disability lead or a nonprofit, ten minutes of this explains what no memo ever will. The goal: spot the barriers, not "experience disability" for the length of a workshop.
Get people involved: give everyone a role
5. Host a DuoDay pair (November 19)
DuoDay is an unpaid discovery day open to anyone with a disability, who pairs up with a volunteer professional from your company. It runs across France. Sign up early, plan the welcome and check that your site is accessible. One day is often enough to shift how a whole team sees things.
6. A live Q&A with your disability lead, with anonymous questions
In France, companies with 250 or more employees must appoint a disability lead (référent handicap). Wherever you operate, give that person thirty minutes live. Collect questions ahead of time, anonymously: recognition, adjustments, who to contact. The questions nobody dares to ask out loud are usually the most useful.
7. A manager kit
One page, tops. How to respond when someone brings up their disability. What you never ask: the nature of the disability. Who to contact internally. What support exists: in France, Agefiph for the private sector and FIPHFP for the public sector. Managers are the first person people talk to. They shouldn't be the last to know what to do.
8. An accessibility team challenge
Each team spots one barrier in its daily work: an unreadable PDF, a heavy door, a meeting without captions. Then it proposes a fix. On Eli, each day brings one concrete action to take, and the team feed shows what changed. By the end of the week, you have a list of real improvements, not one more poster.
Take action: go from awareness to employment
9. A confidential recognition campaign
Explain what formal recognition brings, how to apply (in France, RQTH through the local MDPH) and who to talk to in full confidence. Never ask who's concerned. Disclosure stays a personal choice. Your job: make sure everyone knows the door is open.
10. Recruit at a disability job fair
The Talents Handicap recruiting fair runs a special SEEPH 2026 edition, 100% online, starting November 6. Post your openings there, for any role. Outside France, look for a local disability job fair in the same weeks. Awareness means more when it leads to hires.
11. Buy from disability-inclusive suppliers
The caterer for your event, the printing for your kit, the landscaping: give them to a sheltered workshop (ESAT), an adapted company (EA) or a self-employed worker with a disability. In France, part of those contract amounts is deductible from the OETH contribution.
12. A before-and-after pulse survey
Three questions, asked a week before Disability Week and again a week after. "Do you know who our disability lead is?" "Would you know where to find help?" "Would you feel comfortable asking for an adjustment?" The gap between the two surveys is the impact of your week.
Plan your Disability Week: an October-to-December timeline
- Early October: name a sponsor, bring in your disability lead, set the budget. Sign up for DuoDay and register your event on the official site.
- Mid-October: pick 4 to 6 ideas from the list. Reach out to partner nonprofits and suppliers. Send the "before" survey.
- Late October: send the kit to managers. Announce the week with a first teaser.
- Early November: post your openings on the Talents Handicap fair, open from November 6. Share the week's program.
- November 16 to 22: Disability Week. One highlight a day, DuoDay on Thursday the 19th.
- Late November: send the "after" survey. Thank participants, DuoDay pairs and storytellers.
- December 3: follow up on the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Share results and what comes next.
Measure the impact of the week
Track a few indicators, and track them properly:
- participation, by team and by site;
- the gap between the "before" and "after" surveys;
- the number of questions your disability lead receives;
- DuoDay pairs hosted and applications received;
- adjustment requests, over the following months.
One caution: don't set a numeric target for disclosures during the week. It's a personal choice. What you're measuring is trust, not a counter.
Beyond the week: disability inclusion in the workplace all year
One week doesn't change a culture. What changes it is small moments, repeated: a meeting everyone can follow, a document everyone can read, an adjustment request handled without a runaround.
Keep one touchpoint every quarter. Connect the subject to your other key moments: QWL Week, your CSR challenges, your awareness campaigns and your internal communications. Every date of the year is in our wellbeing and CSR calendar 2027.
That's where Eli comes in. The Diversity, equity & inclusion template turns the subject into 90-second team challenges, built by AI and completed on any phone. Adapt it to disability, launch it in October, keep it alive through December 3. And beyond.
FAQ: Disability Week at work
When is Disability Week 2026?
Disability Week 2026, officially the European Week for the Employment of People with Disabilities (SEEPH), runs from Monday, November 16 to Sunday, November 22, 2026. It's the 30th edition.
What is the SEEPH 2026 theme?
The SEEPH 2026 theme is "Démystifier, simplifier, accompagner. L'emploi pour toutes et tous," or "Demystify, simplify, support. Employment for everyone." Agefiph announced it on May 26, 2026. It aims to make disability employment support easier to understand and to use.
What is SEEPH?
SEEPH is the European Week for the Employment of People with Disabilities. Co-organized in France by LADAPT, Agefiph and FIPHFP, it brings employers, public agencies, nonprofits and job seekers together every November around getting into work and staying in work.
When is DuoDay 2026?
DuoDay 2026 is on Thursday, November 19, 2026, during SEEPH. A person with a disability pairs up with a volunteer professional for a one-day discovery placement. Employers sign up at duoday.fr.
How do you organize Disability Week at work?
Start in early October: a sponsor, your disability lead, a budget. Pick 4 to 6 actions across three beats: raise awareness (quiz, stories), get people involved (DuoDay, manager kit) and take action (job postings, inclusive suppliers). Measure the impact with a survey before and after the week.