Focusing on diversity? Don’t overlook disability
Inclusion should cover those with particular challenges—physical, cognitive or otherwise—to properly reflect the citizenry and for an array of subtle benefits to your organization.
“If disability is not on your board agenda, neither is diversity, nor is innovation, productivity, brand experience, talent, risk, reputation…” —Caroline Casey, founder, The Valuable 500
At the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, I played a small role in launching a much-needed disability inclusion revolution to the global business community and now to Cannes’ award-winning acclaim.
Why? Largely because of this pressingly uncomfortable truth: While many companies are talking a good game when it comes to committing to diversity and inclusion, disappointingly few are genuinely walking the walk, opting to be “diversish.”
“Diversish” is to be selectively inclusive of some types of people within a company, group or business, depending on which type best suits the company. Recent research by EY found that despite 90% of companies claiming to prioritize diversity, only 4% consider disability, and yet 20% of the population, 1.3 billion people, live with some kind of disability—visible or invisible.
Bring in The Valuable 500.
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