National Aeronautics and Space Administration 

Policy Statement on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

for NASA’s Workforce and Workplaces

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is fully committed to Diversity, 

Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) for our entire workforce and within our workplaces. 

Our Agency is dedicated to: promoting an environment where employees consistently and 

systematically receive fair, just, and impartial treatment; fostering a culture in which employees 

feel welcomed, respected, included, and engaged; and ensuring employees can fully and 

independently access facilities, information and communication technology, programs, and 

services. 

We understand the critical importance and value of DEIA for the safety, well-being, and 

effectiveness of our workforce and missions, and we embed DEIA in all aspects of our Agency 

operations. Our focus on DEIA enables us to recruit and engage the best talent from the full 

spectrum of society, with a variety of valuable skills, capabilities, perspectives, and backgrounds. 

This strategically positions NASA to achieve superior performance, problem-solving, 

innovation, and public service. We weave DEIA throughout our culture and interactions with 

each other, reinforcing the Agency’s core value of Inclusion and enlisting our Employee 

Resource Groups and entire workforce to advance DEIA efforts. This enables NASA 

organizations and individuals to maintain a transcendent focus on our common goals and to 

strengthen our connections, empowering us to work together to achieve mission success. 

NASA is a proud leader in DEIA and has been ranked the “Best Place to Work in the Federal 

Government” among large Federal agencies for ten consecutive years, based on data from the 

U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. We know that the 

full participation and empowerment of a wide variety of people, organizations, capabilities, and 

assets enables us to accomplish our missions. Our focus on DEIA allows us to foster innovation 

and originality and to leverage the varying and rich experiences that make our workforce one of 

a kind. 

Our broad view of diversity and inclusion embraces the commonalities that connect 

organizations and individuals, as well as the unique differences in culture, history, traits, skills, 

capabilities, and thinking that are vital for our mission success. We define diversity as “the 

entire universe of differences and similarities.” Our definition of diversity specifically 

encompasses the full variety of communities, identities, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, 

cultures, and beliefs of all people. This definition includes individuals from underserved 

communities, meaning populations and geographic communities that share a particular 

National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration

Office of the Administrator

Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters

Washington, DC 20546-0001
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characteristic and have been denied a full opportunity to participate in aspects of economic, 

social, and civic life. We define inclusion as “the full participation, belonging, and contribution 

of organizations and individuals.” Our definition of inclusion specifically involves the 

recognition, appreciation, and use of the talents and skills of employees of all backgrounds. 

Equity is also infused in NASA’s culture, workplaces, and missions. We define equity as “the 

consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals, including 

individuals who belong to underserved communities that have been denied such treatment.” 

While this DEIA Policy Statement focuses on NASA’s internal workforce, we are also 

committed to advancing societal equity and removing barriers for the underserved and 

underrepresented beyond the NASA workforce. 

Accessibility to our work and workplaces is also crucial to the safety and effectiveness of our 

workforce and missions. We define accessibility as “the design, construction, development, and 

maintenance of facilities, information and communication technology, programs, and services so 

that all people, including people with disabilities, can fully and independently use them.” Our 

definition specifically includes the provision of reasonable accommodations, equal employment 

opportunity, and inclusive participation for people with disabilities. By ensuring all individuals 

(e.g., employees, applicants, and visitors) have accessibility to and at NASA, we best serve the 

public and assure that all individuals have equitable opportunities to contribute to our mission 

success.

Together, we can assure that all NASA personnel safely, effectively, and inclusively contribute 

to the success of our missions. Discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and barriers to inclusion 

and accessibility compromise our workforce and our missions; therefore, they have no place at 

NASA. 

ANTI-DISCRIMINATION AND EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

NASA strictly prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender 

identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy, status as a parent, marital status, age, disability (physical 

or mental), family medical history or genetic information, political affiliation, military service, or 

any other factor that is not based on merit. These protections extend to all employment policies, 

practices, and actions, including but not limited to: recruitment and hiring; job assignments; 

performance management; rewards; promotions; training and development; reassignments; 

discipline; and removals. 

NASA is committed to ensuring an environment where employees are fully empowered to raise 

concerns about employment discrimination and to participate in the Agency’s Equal 

Employment Opportunity (EEO) process. Accordingly, NASA strictly prohibits retaliation 

against employees for raising allegations of employment discrimination, opposing employment 

discrimination, or participating in the EEO complaint process. NASA also strictly prohibits 

interference with the EEO process or behavior that would reasonably have the effect of 

interfering with another individual’s participation in the EEO process. 

Any employee or applicant for employment who believes they have been subjected to 

employment discrimination, harassment, or retaliation may contact NASA’s Office of Diversity 
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and Equal Opportunity (ODEO) and must initiate this contact within 45 days of the alleged harm 

to timely proceed in NASA’s EEO complaints process. Employees are also encouraged to use 

NASA’s Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) process as a valuable tool to resolve EEO 

complaints in a prompt and effective manner. All employees are encouraged to visit the EEO 

complaints process webpage, located on the NASA ODEO webpage, to learn more about the 

EEO complaints and ADR processes. 

ANTI-HARASSMENT

NASA strictly prohibits harassment and is fully committed to providing a safe and harassmentfree work environment. We define harassment as any “conduct that is unwelcome, verbal or 

physical, regardless of whether it is based on an individual’s race, color, sex (sexual orientation, 

pregnancy, and gender identity), national origin, religion, age, disability, status as a parent, 

genetic information, or retaliation, when: (a) the behavior can reasonably be considered to 

adversely affect the work environment, or (b) an employment decision affecting the employee is 

based upon the employee’s acceptance or rejection of such conduct.” Examples of such conduct 

include, but are not limited to, offensive jokes, slurs, name calling, verbal and physical threats, 

intimidation, retaliation, and insults. 

NASA encourages all employees to report and help prevent workplace harassment, and NASA 

strictly prohibits retaliation for raising allegations of harassment, opposing harassment, or 

participating in a process to gather information and respond to allegations of harassment. 

NASA’s Anti-Harassment Program is recognized as a model for prompt and effective resolution 

of harassment allegations. The Anti-Harassment Program initiates a thorough and impartial factfinding within ten calendar days of receiving a harassment allegation, and the Agency issues 

decisions on all harassment complaints within 60 days of receipt. The Agency takes immediate 

and appropriate corrective action in situations involving harassment and implements proactive 

measures to reasonably prevent harassment from occurring. To the fullest extent possible, the 

Agency protects the confidentiality of individuals raising harassment allegations. 

NASA employees have multiple avenues to report alleged harassment, including: any NASA 

supervisor; an Anti-Harassment Coordinator at Headquarters or one of the NASA Centers 

(contact information available on the Center Anti-Harassment Coordinators listing). 

REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION

All NASA employees are encouraged to familiarize themselves with NASA’s policies, 

procedures, and resources on reasonable accommodation and accessibility to information and 

communication technology, including: NASA’s Policy Directive on Provision of Reasonable 

Accommodation for Individuals with Disabilities (NPD 3713.8B), NASA’s Reasonable 

Accommodations Procedures (NPR 3713.1C), and NASA’s webpage on Section 508 of the 

Rehabilitation Act of 1973. 

Any employee or applicant for employment who believes they have been subjected to 

discrimination, including denial of reasonable accommodation or other employment 

discrimination based upon disability, may contact NASA’s ODEO and must initiate this contact 

within 45 days of the alleged harm to timely proceed in NASA’s EEO complaints process. 
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SUMMARY

At NASA, we fully embrace DEIA as a strategic enabler of our safety and mission assurance. 

Our commonalities unite us as a team, and our differences strengthen the talent, skills, 

knowledge, experience, perspectives, and ideas that optimize our performance and mitigate risk. 

I call upon the entire NASA workforce to ingrain DEIA in all we do – our missions, programs, 

policies, culture, facilities, technology, and through our everyday interactions with each other. 

This enables all NASA organizations and individuals to maintain a transcendent focus on our 

shared purpose and reinforce our connections, empowering us to work together to explore, 

innovate, and inspire the world through discovery. 

3/1/2023

Bill Nelson Date