FA Logo Bilingual Circle White

FoodAbility 6×30: Disability: Don’t Overthink It

SHERRI D CIRCLE IMAGE

Sherri Deveau

Event Presenter
CPHR & HR Inclusion Strategist - Food Processing Skills Canada

CEO, Practical Human Resource Solutions Inc

Sherri is a Certified Human Resources Professional (CPHR) and Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (RCIC) with over 30 years of experience. As the Founder and CEO of Practical Human Resource Solutions Inc. and Deveau Immigration, she specializes in HR and immigration consulting, championing diversity and inclusion. Sherri played an instrumental role in government-led “Labs" focused on policy development from the employer’s perspective, ensuring that business needs were represented in the creation of effective government workforce policies.

Sherri has facilitated many roundtable industry discussions, advocating for diversity and inclusion in leadership and labour force development.

Deanna Zenger CIRCLE

Deanna Zenger

Event Presenter
Regional Coordinator – Food Processing Skills Canada

National Program Manager – FoodAbility

Deanna enjoys her senior role at Food Processing Skills Canada, where she champions inclusion in workforce development. Her dedication to excellence and skills development resonates throughout her professional endeavours, earning her respect in both industry and education circles. In addition to her national influence, Deanna is actively involved in global business development and strategic partnerships. She provides international training and creates eLearning content, amplifying her impact on a global scale.

Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds

About this event

You Don’t Need to Be an Expert to Get It Right.

With hundreds of disabilities and conditions, it’s impossible for HR professionals and managers to understand everyone—and they don’t need to. Having a disability doesn’t mean someone can’t work, meet expectations or make a valuable contribution.

Yet disability can still create uncertainty in the workplace. What can I ask? What if I say the wrong thing? What does a workplace adjustment look like? What about safety, productivity and performance?

In this practical 30-minute webinar, we’ll take some of the uncertainty out of disability at work. We’ll explore the many ways disability can show up—including disabilities we may never see—challenge common assumptions, and focus on what employers really need to know when working with candidates and employees with disabilities.

You’ll learn how to have more confident conversations, focus on ability and contribution, and approach workplace adjustments as practical ways of helping people do their best work—without automatically lowering expectations or changing the essential requirements of the job.

Because you don’t need to understand every disability to get it right.

Focus on what the person can do, what the work requires, and what might help them succeed.

  • Recognize how visible, non-visible and episodic disabilities may affect people differently—without making assumptions about their abilities, performance or potential.
  • Use respectful, confident and job-focused communication when discussing disability-related needs and workplace adjustments.
  • Apply an ability-focused approach to workplace adjustments that supports people in doing their best work without lowering performance expectations or changing the essential requirements of the job.

Event Details

// Match "9:00 am - 4:00 pm ET" const eventDate = new Date('2025-08-26'); // Event date in local time (we'll build full UTC below) // Eastern Time on August 26, 2025 is in EDT (UTC-4) // Construct a UTC time representing the EDT time const utcHour = hour + 4; // EDT is UTC-4, so +4 to get UTC const utcDate = new Date(Date.UTC(2025, 7, 26, utcHour, minute)); // August = 7 // Format to user's local time zone

Related Events

FA Logo Bilingual Circle White

FoodAbility 6×30: Beyond the Recipe – PART 2 — KEEP the Talent

What you learn:

  • Recognize how neurodivergent employees may communicate, process information, respond to their environment and approach their work differently.
  • Identify workplace practices and management approaches that may unintentionally limit employee performance, contribution and retention.
  • Apply practical approaches to flexibility, workplace adjustments, communication and management that support different ways of working without changing the essential expectations of the job.
FA Logo Bilingual Circle White

FoodAbility 6×30 Beyond the Recipe: PART 1 — SEE the Talent

What you learn:

  • Identify elements of job postings, candidate screening, interviews and skills assessments that may unintentionally overlook neurodivergent talent.
  • Recognize how differences in communication, behaviour and interview performance can affect how a candidate’s abilities and potential are perceived.
  • Apply practical, ability-focused changes that give candidates more ways to demonstrate their skills, strengths and potential.
FA Logo Bilingual Circle White

FoodAbility 6×30: One Size Fits Nobody

What you learn:

  • Identify workplace processes and expectations that unintentionally limit how different people participate, contribute and succeed.
  • Apply a universal workplace lens to recruitment, onboarding, communication, training, flexibility and everyday work practices.
  • Recognize practical opportunities to redesign work around people’s different strengths, abilities and ways of working.
Screenshot 2025 07 17 144416

FoodAbility 6×30: Disability: Don’t Overthink It Agenda

October 15, 2026 1:00 pm

Download or View Online