There is an inequality crisis globally facing disability.
This can't be
resolved by governments or charities alone.
It needs the most powerful force on
this planet which is business.
But disability has been on the sidelines of
business.
We believe at The Valuable 500 it's because we haven't had
leadership attention and intention.
56% of our global boards have never had a
disability conversation.
We know that leaders make choices and choices create
cultures.
We know that we are in the shadow or the light of a leader and we need
leaders to release the potential into their organizations to operationalize
disability business inclusion.
The Valuable 500 - which was launched at the
World Economic Forum in Davos this year with our chairperson Paul Polman and our
strategic partners One Young World, Omnicom and the Virgin Media Group -
exists to position disability equally on the global business leadership agenda
and to get business to equally include disability as part of their inclusion
and diversity agenda.
Its aim is within the year 2019 to get 500 of the world's
most influential brands and their CEOs to create this critical mass - because
it's 500 - this critical mass, this tipping point for change.
We will report back on those organizations in Davos 2020.
I think we're at an incredibly exciting time at the moment, you can feel it.
I mean I've been in the
space of disability business inclusion for 20 years and there definitely feels
like there's something finally happening.
I think there's three triggers for this.
One is the younger generation and their insistence upon being valued as
unique and individual, equally, and their their acceptance of difference.
The second piece is this digital revolution and social media is giving voice to so
many people who never had it before.
I think technology - I mean there's no
doubt that is a huge democratizer - so there's a lot going on.
Also, I really believe around brands.
So one of the things that I think is changing,
speaking to CEOs around the world, is that for a
long time they never really saw the full
business case.
This is a business case around
innovation and growth and talent and brand and an eight trillion market.
For too long disability had been competing with other issues on the
Diversity & Inclusion agenda, which is just crazy.
Why would we do that?
I think leaders are finally seeing it now and I think they're actually seeing this as a
point of growth and differentiation that hasn't been touched.
What I am noticing, however, is there is still fear around leaders and leaders
defer to D&I or to their HR people around this but I don't believe
that, first of all, inclusion is a D&I conversation.
It's a leadership conversation,
it's a sustainability conversation,
it's a cultural conversation.
When we ask organizations to join The Valuable 500,
the leaders go: "Of course, like why wouldn't I?"
But the obstacle and the
barrier is the system.
The system that still doesn't understand the huge
opportunity but it is changing and when we see now on this day that we have just
under 200 organizations globally signing The Valuable 500, we are creating that
FOMO - fear of missing out - that tipping point for change and that's exciting.
Listen, we're all on a journey together and I think we're gonna see a huge
change in the landscape of the next 18 months.
So, we're here at the "Future of
Work" conference in the ILO and, you know, one of the things that I am concerned
about is when we speak about the employment of people with disabilities,
there's a few kind of misunderstandings.
One is: of the 1.3 billion people in the
world who have a disability, 80% of that is invisible and 80% is acquired between
the ages of 18 and 64.
So, when we're talking about employment and work, we need
to understand there's a lot of people.
I did not disclose my disability until 20
years ago.
I'm registered blind, I was in the closet for a long time.
I "came out of the closet" 20 years ago in Accenture.
The reason I didn't talk about my
disability was for fear of not being allowed to do what I wanted to do or my
talent or capability or potential or skills to be recognized.
That it would be distracted by this definition of disability.
So, I think we really need
to understand that disability is not one type of disability, it's so many
different identities, different lived experiences and it can happen to
anybody, okay?
So this is the first part about what we need to understand.
The second piece around the "Future of Work" we need to understand is people with
disabilities have a very different way of looking at the world and a very
different way of of being in the world, which I think is a great opportunity for
growth and innovation around technology.
We've got to remember the remote control
was designed for visually impaired and blind people and look, we all use it.
At the very basis, I think people with disabilities can really help around the
idea of Universal Design or human-centered design or Design for All
which enables all of us to flourish, to bring ourselves to work.
The third thing I think we need to really understand when we're talking about the
employment of people with disabilities is until we attach this to a model of
value, until we see the value model of people with disabilities as consumers
and suppliers and members of the community and talent -
why on earth would an employer who's so already overwhelmed with so much, who
still doesn't understand the business case see it unless it's connected to the
full value chain.
So when we're talking about the future of work for people with
disabilities, we need to understand the value chain and that's why we call this
"The Valuable 500".
We're not asking companies to do this because -
I'm certainly not even trying to make the case anymore
for people with disabilities in the future of work.
There's a risk now,
there's a risk to companies and to brands not to include this talent, not to include
this resourcefulness, to serve consumers, to serve the new growth areas.
It's a risk to your brand.
So, my invitation is to companies around the
world: "Do you not want to get the first mover advantage or be the early adopter?"
- because it's certainly there to take.