Embracing diverse abilities – Oracle’s ODAN is Making Impact

At Oracle, we are committed to embracing diverse abilities and creating a workplace where all people cansucceed without barriers. This includes lifting each other up whenever we can and seizing opportunities to do better.  The Oracle Diverse Abilities Network (ODAN) Employee Resource Group (ERG) is playing a central role in doing so, and with impressive impact.

Oracle Diverse Abilities Network (ODAN)

ODAN is celebrating its third anniversary and is focused on advancing its mission to uplift and support Oracle’s community of employees with disabilities, parents and caregivers of individuals with disabilities, and allies. To date, ODAN has nearly 1400 members across 42 countries and is growing in numbers, reflecting its significance to current employees and future prospects.

To fulfill its mission, ODAN uses advocacy and leverages resources, outreach, and education to deliver greater business value using fresh perspectives and insights. For Aritra Bandyopadhyay, a senior principal applications engineer at Oracle, who joined the India chapter and is a core committee member, it has created awareness “inside and outside the workplace about the various visible and invisible disabilities and how to succeed.” Aritra says ODAN has been “a positive source of energy,” and events she has participated in “instill confidence to do even more.”

Allies & Partnerships

ODAN also has a significant number of ally members. Jadie Huegel, a Real Estate and Facilities communications manager at Oracle, understood how important the group was for employees but has also found that the awareness it brings - as well as the resources it offers – are incredibly useful inside and outside of work. She explained that “between neurodiverse children, caregiving for my grandmother with dementia, and working with Corporate real estate, where physical accessibility is so critical, the education and resources were essential to achieving better outcomes all-around.”

ODAN partners with Best Buddies, International, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement that creates opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment, leadership development and inclusive living for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Through this program, ODAN volunteers assist with providing mentoring and speech coaching for those with IDD so they can practice advocating for themselves and their communities. This opportunity and others like it, such as the Best Buddies Friendship Walks, have inspired Jadie to help her local chapter’s Best Buddies Champion of the Year Gala and celebrate the people in this community and their meaningful work.

ODAN – Mission Forward, impact driven and fierce advocates for change

Focused on advancement, ODAN’s members are committed to fostering an inclusive, accessible work environment for people of all abilities through advocacy, opportunities, resources, outreach, and education. The results speak for themselves, as Arita explained, “I have guided ODAN members through disability issues and built a strong network of like-minded colleagues to learn from and help each other.” The experience for Jadie has involved “joining an amazing, diverse, and collaborative community where I learn and grow every day. It’s through these connections, hearing first-hand stories of the challenges and barriers employees with disabilities have to face every day, that I’ve become a more effective communicator and a fierce advocate for the community.”

2023 Disability Equality Index Results

A central pillar of Oracle’s inclusion journey is hiring people with visible and invisible disabilities through diversity recruitment programs, scholarships, and partnerships with organizations like Disability:IN. As part of this commitment, Oracle participates in the annual Disability Equality Index (DEI), which is a joint initiative between Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities and serves as the world’s largest and most comprehensive benchmarking tool to measure disability workplace inclusion among corporations.  Participating companies receive a score on a scale of zero to 100, with those earning 80 and above recognized as “Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion.”

For the fourth year in a row, Oracle scored 100 and was recently named one of the Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion in 2023.  While work is ongoing, this achievement is a reflection of Oracle’s D&I programs and initiatives, including the wide range of Employee Resource Groups and diverse communities – ODAN, Oracle Alliance of Black Leaders for Excellence (ABLE), Oracle Latinos Alliance (OLA), Oracle Professional Asian Leadership (OPAL), Indigenous Oracle Network (ION), Oracle Pride Employee Network (OPEN), Military Affiliated Veteran Employee Network (MAVEN), Generations of Leaders Organization (GLO), and Oracle Women’s Leadership (OWL).

Do you want to join a company that embraces inclusivity? Learn about our inclusive practices, as well as how to join our team.