A rising tide lifts all boats, so does inclusion

March 12, 1990 forever changed the course of disability rights in America. Over 60 activists ditched their wheelchairs and crutches and crawled up 83 marble steps of the U.S. Capitol.

Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins, who had cerebral palsy and was only 8 years old at the time, even told organizers who tried to stop her, “I’ll take all night if I have to.”

The Capitol Crawl worked as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law only four months later, on July 26, 1990.

That date is now engraved in history as National Disability Independence Day, and 2026 marks 36 years since the signing. It also falls during Disability Pride Month, running through all of July. A reminder to workplaces that disabilities are not a reason for exclusion, and that access shouldn't be something people have to fight for.

What is National Disability Independence Day all about

National Disability Independence Day isn't just about marking the anniversary. It's also a chance to check how much has actually changed for people with disabilities.

There's also a new theme every year. 2026's is all about "The World Works Better With Us," which sums up this day perfectly. Do something with everyone in mind, and it usually just ends up outright beneficial. Curb cuts, closed captioning, audiobooks, and text-to-speech all started that way, a win-win all around.

So what does the ADA actually do?

It's a civil rights law that says employers, businesses, transit systems, and government services can't discriminate against someone because they have a disability. On top of that, they often have to make changes so people with disabilities can actually participate.

The ADA defines disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits everyday life activity. And it's intentionally broad like that. It covers things people expect (mobility issues, blindness, deafness) and a lot of things people don't immediately think of, like diabetes, PTSD, or a learning disability.

What changed for the workplace specifically

Before the ADA, none of this was guaranteed. Buildings had no ramps. Buses had no lifts. TV had no captions. Employers could legally turn someone down just for having a disability. After 1990, that changed. Here is what changed:

Before the ADA (pre-1990):

• Rejecting an applicant for having a disability was legal, no job-related reason needed
• Interviews could ask "what's wrong with you" or require a medical exam before any offer
• Accommodations (equipment, schedule, interpreters, screen readers) were entirely optional
• Buildings, bathrooms, and break rooms had no legal accessibility requirement
• Firing someone after a diagnosis or disability came with little to no legal recourse

After the ADA (1990 to now):

• Employers with 15+ staff can't deny a job over disability alone
• Pre-offer medical exams and disability questions are restricted to essential job functions only
• Reasonable accommodations are a legal duty, unless they create undue hardship
• New construction and renovations must meet accessibility standards
• Employees can file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) if they believe they've been discriminated against.

But there's still room to get better. Even 36 years later, there's a wide employment gap. 

In 2025, the employment rate for people with a disability was 22.8 percent, compared to 65.2 percent for people without one. For the 25 to 54 age group specifically, only about 45 percent of people with disabilities were employed, against 83 percent for people without. That gap is wider than any racial, gender, or education gap tracked in the same data.

How managers can make the workplace more inclusive

Inclusion shouldn't last just for the day. And a lot of the changes that help people with disabilities end up helping everyone else too. The same logic behind building a strong workplace culture overall.

A few things that make a real difference in the workplace are:

• Make accommodation requests easy: A lot of people don't ask because they don't know who to ask, or are afraid to.
• Review physical and digital access: Don't stop at physical accessibility, with the technology now, digital accessibility matters just as much.
• Train supervisors on spotting disabilities: Conditions don't always show, and often get mistaken for someone being unreliable, when really they just need support.
• Check the hiring pipeline, not just the workplace: Timed or in-person-only interviews, plus outdated job requirements, can filter out qualified candidates.
• Celebrate the people already there: Highlight employees with disabilities on your team, making sure their contributions get seen like anyone else's.

None of this requires a big budget. Most accommodations cost employers less than $500 when there's a cost at all. The barrier is usually awareness, not money.

A report from Spencer Fane notes that California's SB 68, which took effect in July 2026, made the state the first in the U.S. to require chain restaurants to list the nine major allergens directly on menus.

New York followed with a law requiring allergen labels on premises-packed foods, effective November 2026. Illinois, Maryland, and Michigan have introduced similar bills. Legal experts are describing this as a structural shift in how food service has to operate.

This matters for people who've spent years doing the "ask your server" system or their own research before every meal out because they couldn't trust the answer they'd get.

But the issue still exists that this law only covers restaurant chains and not independent restaurants. It’ll be up to them whether they will follow this requirement.

For any kind of restaurant owner looking for a checklist template for accurate menu labelling, hope this helps: https://safetyculture.com/library/hospitality/food-allergens-zwaytskictwtdumn

The EU Council moved in June 2026 to extend the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)’s scope to downstream manufactured goods and tighten anti-circumvention rules.

Getting production-level emissions data out of suppliers that are handling iron, steel, aluminium or any other covered goods, who may not have a carbon management tool, may be using a different methodology, or may be sending an unverifiable number against a database, will now be harder.

In practice, the collection workflow is just one person manually reconciling whatever the supplier sends against a team's emissions factors, without any clean reporting handoff.

For those of you working on CBAM compliance and watching out for any operational bottlenecks, hope the workflows here can help: https://safetyculture.com/topics/sustainable-manufacturing/manufacturing-carbon-footprint

The World Health Organization (WHO) released updated editions of its foodborne disease surveillance and response manuals in January 2026. The series covers introductory through advanced approaches to integrated surveillance across the food chain, with self-assessment tools, decision trees, and field investigation templates to help countries build or strengthen national detection capacity.

The stated goal is faster, more reliable alerts through the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) emergency network, which the manuals directly acknowledge that many national systems currently can't achieve. The bottleneck is that a country with no systematic foodborne surveillance cannot actually detect and report outbreaks in the first place.

For anyone working in outbreak investigation or food safety systems, the field investigation templates and self-assessment tools are probably the most practical entry point: Food Safety in the Manufacturing Industry

Plastic Free July, just like its name suggests, is the global movement of reducing or cutting the use of plastics throughout July. What started with just 40 people in 2011, now has over 170 million participants across 190 countries.

Anyone can participate, no matter where you are. No grand gestures needed. Just avoid using single-use plastics for the month. It sounds small, but the results are there.

A 2024 Report says that Plastic Free July participants have collectively avoided 12.8 billion kilograms of waste over six years; that's more than the world's largest cleanup efforts combined.

Side note: There's another plastic-free initiative in July. July 3 is International Plastic Bag Free Day, which further reinforces the attention on the whole plastic problem.

Plastic really affects us, whether you like it or not

And the environmental case for it is even harder to ignore. Plastic doesn't biodegrade; instead, it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces we call microplastics. These microplastics end up in oceans, soil, and, eventually, in the food chain from animals that eat it. 

So much so that these microplastics have been found in human blood and lung tissue at this point. So in a way, it’s affecting us more than you know.

Plastic heavily impacts climate change as well, as it’s made from fossil fuels. In 2023, plastic production accounted for just over 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which may rise if left unchecked.

"Choose to refuse" and "small steps, big difference"

These aren't just taglines to share on social media. These are the reasons why Plastic Free July works.

"Choose to refuse" every time you're about to grab a plastic bag, a straw, or a disposable cup. When it happens, you pause and say no. You bring your own bag to the grocery. You skip the straw. That is choosing to refuse. Simple but works.

"Small steps, big difference" is the idea that no matter how small your action is, it still contributes to something bigger. When many people make small changes, it adds up to a significant difference in communities. The results don’t just happen overnight.

Less than 10% of all plastics are recycled globally, and production doesn’t seem to stop. It's going to be a tough hill to climb, but with enough collective action, it's possible. Plastic Free July is proof that behavior change at scale is possible. 

6 ways to cut single-use plastics in the workplace

As a manager or office worker, it's easy to think your plastic use doesn't add up to much. But it does. Small workplace habits, multiplied across an entire team or building, contribute more than most people realize.

Here are some ways to practice being plastic free this July:

• Gift free reusable tote bags for your employees.
• Ditch the plastic cups and cutlery in the pantry, and opt for reusable ones instead. 
• Stop using plastic bags or single-use packaging for office giveaways.
• Set up proper and clearly labeled waste management containers. 
• Review your suppliers and choose ones that use minimal or recyclable packaging.
• Grab the free Plastic Free July social media kit and share it across your channels.

Plastic Free July runs from July 1 to July 31, 2026. Use this month as a starting point to reduce your waste, even if the goal is to keep going after.

Observed every June in the US, Effective Communications Month aims to promote the importance of clear communication across both professional and personal life. 

It was established by the International Association of Business Communicators, and unlike events like National Safety Month, there's no single governing body running it. No weekly themes, no coordinated campaign, no prescribed structure. You can use this entirely as you seem fit. 

It's an awareness moment that covers verbal, written, and nonverbal communication across all contexts, but the workplace angle is where most of the practical value sits.

The importance of communication

Any form of communication is important in all aspects of life. It can be traced back to the earliest human societies. Back then, a lot more depended on communication—it was essential for survival, for conveying intent and coordinating actions.

In today’s society, the need for communication hasn’t changed, the stakes have just shifted.

Communication breakdowns is the reason behind a disproportionate amount of workplace errors that may lead to safety incidents and operational failures. 

That’s more than just interpersonal friction; that’s actual operational breakdowns that are costing your organization time, money,and, in some severe cases, lives. 

A US survey of 400 companies with 100,000 employees each found an average loss of $62.4 million per year per company due to poor communication. Conversely, in a different study of 23,000 malpractice suits, 7,000 were a result of failed communication, amounting to $1.7 billion in costs and approximately 2,000 preventable deaths.

And that’s just the numbers in costs. 

In frontline and high-risk environments, communication gaps can be the difference between life and death. It’s more than just message clarity; it’s about whether the right people received it, at the right time, through the right channels.

A perfectly worded procedure that nobody reads isn't communication, that’s just documentation.

The breakdown most orgs overlook

Here’s the thing about communication in the workplace: it’s mostly done from top to bottom. The all-hands meetings, policy rollouts, all of these are planned by leaders with leaders. With the organization in mind, yes, but not the people furthest from the room where decisions get made—who the decisions will mostly affect. 

Frontline workers often are the ones who hold the most critical operational information in any organization. They’re the ones getting up close and personal with safety risks. They’re the ones seeing the near misses before they become incidents, noticing when a process has drifted from how it was designed, and absorbing the downstream effects of decisions made three, four, or five levels above them. 

But they're also the people with the fewest structured ways to surface that information.

These are a result of communication failures, specifically of one of two things: either instructions were only verbally recorded with no documented trail,  or they were documented on paper, it just wasn’t read. At all. 

These aren't just process gaps as some organizations will call it, they're communication failures, and they accumulate quietly until something goes wrong. And then, the entire process starts again.

How teams can observe the month

The most common mistake organizations make is passively treating this awareness month. 

Sharing a post, an all-company email, calling it done. 

Effective Communication Month holds more importance that most realize. It doesn’t just promote effective communication, it also gives you the chance to reassess your organization’s existing processes. 

A few practical starting points could be:

• Identify one verbal-only flow and document it: Pick one recurring process that currently lives entirely in conversation. Write down how it's supposed to work. Then, check whether that matches how it actually works.
• Inquire how your team wants to be notified: Ask your team directly how they want to receive important updates. Keep it conversational and avoid doing surveys, as they’re usually seen as a must-do. The answers are usually more varied than managers expect. Knowing this changes how you communicate, not just what you communicate.
• Review your incident and handover trail: Check if what was intended were received properly. Not just that it happened, but also what was communicated, to whom, and what was decided as a result.

Founded in 2016, National HVAC Tech Day is the day to recognize and appreciate Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) technicians for the work they do. Because when it gets too hot outside, everyone goes running back inside to their Air Conditioning (AC).

Without these HVAC technicians, units, homes, offices, and buildings are going to be uninhabitable. Imagine working in a building where the indoor heat index hits 120°F (48°C). That's what happens when there are no technicians nearby.

HVAC technicians are also an essential key to managing heat safety, which is nothing to laugh at. In 2023 alone, nearly 28,000 workplace injuries were linked to working on hot days. And this included indoor workplaces as well. While hot weather can’t be controlled, HVAC technicians can help make them better. 

This is exactly why managers should use National HVAC Tech Day as a reminder. Heat illness doesn't care if you're working outdoors or in an office.

And the theme for 2026 is

This year's official tagline from the Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA) is "Celebrating the people who keep America comfortable." Given what the next few months look like, HVAC technicians are going to be pushed harder than ever, and they deserve the support.

In fact, there are about 425,200 HVAC technicians currently employed across the country. And the industry is short 110,000 of them, with another 25,000 leaving the workforce every year. Another reason why this day is important, because this profession desperately deserves a spotlight. 

Why HVAC technicians deserve more recognition

For anyone who's never thought much about how HVAC systems work, here’s brief introduction to it: 

The short version is that they move heat. The longer, more detailed explanation is this: a refrigerant absorbs heat from the air inside a building, gets compressed, and releases that heat outside. What's left behind is cooler air, which is what we need.

The techs doing this are working in tight attics that hit 120°F (48°C) in summer, crawl spaces too tight to stand up in, and rooftops during heat advisories. They get called in at 2 AM when a warehouse refrigeration system goes down. They show up when the HVAC in a hospital or data center starts acting up, because those can't wait.

They keep you comfortable even when they're anything but.

What can managers actually do on June 22?

Whether you've contracted HVAC technicians or have some on staff, here's what you can do on the 22nd to get involved:

• Public recognition: A shoutout at a team meeting, a company social post, or a note from leadership.
• Workload check: Overstretched HVAC technicians are a safety risk and a retention risk, so check their schedule before peak summer demand hits.
• Training and certification support: New heat regulations and smarter systems are changing the job, so keeping certifications current isn't optional.
• Fully stocked Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Make sure you have all the updated PPE for HVAC work and nothing is damaged or old.
• Ask for input: Technicians know what's about to fail before anyone else, regular feedback channels are good practice.
• Spread the word: Talk up the trade to younger workers, apprentices, or anyone looking for a stable career path.

In 2013, Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah became the first person in the world to have air pollution officially listed as a cause of death. Before she died, she'd been rushed to hospital 27 times, with every visit tied to air pollution near her home.

Living just 25 metres from one of London's busiest roads, Ella was exposed to Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) and particulate matter levels that continuously exceeded EU legal limits. And UK officials knew about this.

In April 2025, a bronze statue of Ella was unveiled in London as a reminder of what air pollution can do.

Her case is exactly why Clean Air Day is necessary in the UK.

Clean Air Day 2026 is on June 18

National Clean Air Day is the UK's largest air pollution awareness campaign. It pushes the idea for cleaner air to protect public health and raise awareness of the negative effects of air pollution.

Every year also has a specific theme, with 2026’s being "Let's use our voices to clean up our air this Clean Air Day." The idea behind it is simple: systemic change to air quality needs public pressure behind it.

The more voices, the better.

Air pollution contributes to around 43,000 premature deaths per year in the UK

Living Streets reports that dirty air claims tens of thousands of lives in the UK every year. And believe it or not, the UK is actually one of the better countries when it comes to air quality. But even low-level exposure adds up over time. Years of breathing moderately polluted air still damages your health.

And that's not even counting the economic damage: The Royal College of Physicians puts the bill at upwards of £27 billion a year in healthcare costs and productivity losses. 

With all this information,  it becomes even harder to understand why the government cut its air quality budget by 99.4% between 2020 and 2025. The problem didn't go away, the funding did.

According to the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, while NO2 and PM2.5 have clearly improved, ozone is heading in the wrong direction. And since ozone drifts in from other countries, the UK can't solve it alone.

Which is exactly why this year's theme and celebration matters. Clean Air Day doesn’t just strive to keep cutting emissions in the UK, it also aims to show the rest of the world that doing so is possible. 

Let's use our voices to clean up the air in our inner circles

Six million sick days are lost annually in the UK because of dirty air. And the people with the loudest voice to do something about it aren't the CEOs; rather, it's the managers. They're the ones who actually move things in a workplace, and are also regularly in contact with those on the floor. So, for managers specifically, June 18 is the best opportunity to do something about that.

Here are five things worth considering if you're in a position to act:

• Bring in a guest speaker: Invite someone from a local clean air advocacy group like the Ella Roberta Foundation for a talk on what dirty air actually does to the body.
• Offer WFH when possible: Cut commutes, cut emissions. Fewer vehicles on the road during peak hours makes a real difference.
• Check your ventilation: Use the day as a trigger to run a basic indoor air quality check on your building. Most ventilation problems go unnoticed for months.
• Check the air quality forecast: If your team works outdoors or on a construction site, plan ahead. On bad air days, that might mean pausing outdoor work altogether.
• Use the official toolkit: Download the free Clean Air Day social media kit and post the assets on your company channels and ask your team to share.

In the workplace, managers tend to have the loudest voice. Even if only half of these get done, that's already a great way to start!

Imagine walking away from the career you spent years building, for something that pays nothing and goes largely unrecognised.

That's what Dr. Jackie Gray did. When her father was diagnosed with dementia, she left her role as a National Health Service(NHS) doctor, one of the higher-earning professions in the UK, to care for him full-time. No salary. 

For context, full-time carers receive no salary and no formal recognition from the government.  No salary. No benefits. Just pure love.

That's exactly what this year’s Carers Week is here to change.

Carers Week 2026 runs from June 8 to 14.

Carers Week is an annual UK campaign that shines a spotlight on unpaid carers and pushes for better recognition and support for the people doing it.

This year's theme is “Building Carer Friendly Communities.” The idea is simple: carers shouldn't have to do this alone. You can't spend all your time checking if someone else is okay, with no one checking if you're okay.

There are 5.8 million unpaid carers in the UK. Together, they save the economy an estimated £184 billion every year, roughly the equivalent of a second NHS. Yet almost all of them (74%) feel stressed out and overwhelmed.

So why not just hire a nurse or send them to a care home?

The short answer is: cost

Professional home care in the UK typically costs between £26 and £38 per hour in 2025/26. While nursing homes can average £1,535 per week. That's over £80,000 a year.

The sad truth is that people just can’t afford this and would rather do the work themselves.

You’re probably asking, why doesn’t the government just fund it? 

Well, 5.8 million unpaid carers is an enormous number to replace. Again, that’s £184 billion they save the economy every year is exactly the gap the state can't afford to fill.

And not everyone qualifies for a care home anyway. Early-stage dementia, mental health conditions, or addiction often don’t meet the requirements for “formal care support”. 

So families and friends fill the space between "too sick to manage alone" and "not sick enough for the system to help." 

Building Carer Friendly Communities is about making sure nobody has to fill that gap alone.

So what qualifies as a carer?

A lot of people don't realise they are one. You might be a carer if you're regularly looking after someone who is:

• ill or physically disabled
• living with a mental health condition
• dealing with an addiction
• elderly and needs extra support

If you tick any of these, then you are a carer, and this week is dedicated to you.

There is a Carer's Allowance in the UK (£86.45 a week), but you need to care for someone at least 35 hours/week to get it. Plus, earning over £204 a week disqualifies you entirely.

What managers can do during Carers Week

Most carers may already be in your team. They clock in, do their job, then go home to care for a parent or loved one. Nobody at work has any idea and maybe no one will.

That’s why, it’s your job to fix that this Carers Week. Here's how to actually mark the week in your organisation:

• Identify and acknowledge your carers: Start by simply asking. Many employees won't self-identify unless given a safe opportunity.
• Review your flexible working policies: Make room in your policies for flexible hours, remote work, and emergency leaves. Carers need that more than most.
• Bring in a speaker or run a lunch session: Invite a carers charity representative or HR specialist to speak about available support. 
• Share the official Carers Week resources: Spread the word online and use the official social media pack to post on your organisation's channels. 
• Offer paid carer's leave: Go beyond the legal 5 days of unpaid leave and top it up. It's one of the most tangible things a workplace can do.
• Point staff to Carer's Allowance information: Share Carer's Allowance information with your team. Many carers don't know what financial support is available to them.

This June 8, the theme is "Building Carer Friendly Communities" and that community starts at work.