From the Nominator

"Every October, Rutgers marks Disability Awareness Month with a series of events and programs designed to educate faculty, staff and students about the key role disabilities play in making the university vibrant and inclusive. 

To raise awareness for the 2022 program, the Office of Disability Services (ODS), which hosts the event, sought support from Rutgers Communications and Marketing (R-Comm) to build a calendar of activities. After reviewing ODS’ objectives, R-Comm decided to go further and create an internal marketing campaign to educate the Rutgers community about disabilities and increase Disability Awareness Month participation.   

The campaign was organized and executed in three phases: (1) Development of the events page, (2) building a micro-site and launching the events page, and finally (3) archiving the page, which is the version that can be viewed today.  

To increase student participation in the month’s activities, R-Comm sourced and shared social posts on Rutgers-New Brunswick channels. This information was also sent out to university newsletters and departments for internal communication.  

Overall, the results were evidence our efforts to raise awareness of disability services and research across the university were widely successful.""

From the Judges

The Disability Awareness Month initiative was a comprehensive campaign to help the Rutgers community understand, celebrate, and learn more about disability awareness. The team's efforts to offer hybrid events, virtual archives, and a strong social media presence paid off in their boosted participation numbers compared to previous years. Other institutions can use Rutgers' plan as a starting point for their own work around disability awareness.