Standards & Practices

Our Commitment to Inclusion

We welcome everyone and treat people with respect no matter their gender identity, marital status, family status, age, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, faith, or socio-economic background.

This commitment to inclusion shapes how we work:

We hire inclusively and provide accommodations.
We support flexible work arrangements.
We encourage pronoun sharing.
We promote open dialogue where all voices matter.
We embrace mistakes as opportunities to learn.

How We Work

We are working with our Valuable 500 partners and companies to end disability exclusion in business. We drive change through Synchronised Collective Action – channelling the power of 500 partners and companies moving in the same direction, at the same time, against the same system barriers.

As a small, focused team:

We bring people together to solve problems and drive systemic change.
We develop research and practical tools to accelerate progress.
We connect brilliant businesses with brilliant ideas.
We celebrate the successes of our companies and our team.
We’re not consultants, we don’t pretend to have all the answers.
We don’t control our companies or the work they do.
We don’t take credit for our companies’ successes.

Businesses become Valuable 500 partners or companies by committing to disability inclusion. While we welcome this commitment and may celebrate their disability inclusion successes, a company’s Valuable 500 status should not be interpreted as our endorsement of their broader business activities.

While our partner companies have made a public commitment to disability inclusion, they operate independently and may sometimes take actions that don’t fully align with our values or recommendations. We care deeply about workplace inclusion, but we do not handle individual complaints or provide direct advocacy services. If you are experiencing workplace concerns, we encourage you to:

Contact your company’s Human Resources department.
Reach out to your workplace Employee Resource Groups (ERGs).
Connect with local disability advocacy organisations in your area.
Consult your union representative if applicable.
Get in touch with your local employment rights office.

Our Approach to Disability

Disability shapes every aspect of our work at Valuable 500. Our understanding is guided by disabled people’s lived experience, rights-based frameworks, and the recognition that disability is a natural part of human diversity.

While this guide reflects our current thinking, we know there is always more to learn and that perspectives continue to evolve.

We use the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which defines disabled people as “… those who have long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which in interaction with various barriers may hinder their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.”

Importantly, anyone can become disabled through illness, accident, or aging – making disability inclusion everyone’s business.
Different models of disability shape how society views and responds to disability. While various frameworks exist, two main models influence current thinking:
- The Medical Model views disability as a problem to be “fixed” within the individual. It focuses on conditions, impairments, and medical interventions. While medical support can be important, this model often overlooks how society creates barriers.
- The Social Model, which we embrace, recognises that people are disabled by barriers in society rather than by their conditions. For example, a blind person is disabled by the absence of braille of audio descriptions, not their lack of sight.
Other frameworks, like the human rights model and the cultural model, build on these understandings to explore disability as a rights issue and a cultural identity. These perspectives add valuable dimensions to our understanding.
The disability rights movement’s mantra “Nothing About Us, Without Us” has evolved. At the Valuable 500, “Nothing Without Us” reflects our belief that disability inclusion is everyone’s business, and that disabled people must be at the heart of everything we do.

Our commitment to this principle shows in our:
- Team: Most members have either lived experience disability or a close connection to disability through family.
- Advisory Board: Diverse individuals who guide our direction and decisions.
- Research: Ongoing engagement with disabled people and communities to inform our strategy.
- Open dialogue: We welcome insights from the community at [email protected].

Identity and Experience

Disability identity is complex and deeply personal. It intersects with every other aspect of who we are and can be a source of pride, community, and strength. We recognise and celebrate this complexity.

No one is just their disability. People’s experiences are shaped by how their different identities – including race, gender, sexuality, class, age, and culture – intersect with disability. Real inclusion means understanding these intersections.
We firmly believe that disabled isn’t a dirty word. Avoiding the word disabled or using euphemisms like “differently abled” or “special needs” suggests there’s something shameful about being disabled. There isn’t.

We reject purely medical model thinking that reduces people to diagnoses or focuses on “fixing” individuals rather than removing societal barriers.
While we reject purely medical model thinking, we recognise that labels and diagnoses can be powerful, positive tools when they’re embraced by disabled people themselves.

When someone shares their diagnosis or disability label, it should be treated as an act of trust and an invitation to better support them – never as something that needs to be proven or fixed.

Labels and diagnoses can be powerful, positive tools that:
- Validate experiences and identity.
- Connect people with their communities.
- Help access vital support and accommodations.
- Give language to lived experiences.
- Foster pride and belonging.
- Help others understand needed adjustments.
The key is following disabled people’s lead. Some may choose not to share their specific diagnosis or label, while others may find power and pride in doing so. Both choices deserve respect.

Language and Communication

Language shapes how we understand disability. It has the power to include or exclude, empower or diminish, celebrate or stigmatise.

While our guide reflects current thinking, we recognise that language and identity are personal and evolving. We follow disabled people’s lead and adapt as understanding grows. The key is being flexible and respectful, always following the lead of disabled people and their communities.

We recognise ongoing debates about person-first and identity-first language preferences.
- Person-first (“person with a disability”) emphasises the person before their disability.
- Identity-first (“disabled person”) recognises disability as a key part of identity.
Both approaches have merit and neither is universally right or wrong. Many autistic people strongly prefer identity-first language, while others may feel equally strongly about person-first language. When in doubt, ask.

At Valuable 500, we use both approaches depending on context and community preferences.
Disability is a natural and valuable form of human diversity. It is often a source of pride, community, and strength which shapes how people experience the world and contribute to society. Our language should reflect this reality.

We choose language that:
- Recognises disabled people’s agency and autonomy (e.g., “wheelchair user” rather than “wheelchair bound”)
- Celebrates disability culture and community (e.g., “Deaf culture” or “neurodiversity”)
- Acknowledges disability as a source of identity and pride (e.g., “autistic person” or “disabled artist”)
- Reflects disability as a natural part of the human experience (e.g., “lived experience of disability” or “black woman of short stature”)
We avoid language that:
- Suggests tragedy or suffering (“suffers from” or “afflicted with”)
- Implies limitation (“confined to a wheelchair”)
- Reinforces harmful stereotypes (“despite their disability” or “overcame their disability”)
- Creates false hierarchies (“able-bodied”, “normal” or “fully-abled”)
Certain terms are offensive and have no place in respectful or professional communication:
- Handicap/handicapped
- Retard/retarded
- Cripple/crip (unless reclaimed by disabled people themselves)
- Invalid
- Spastic
- Mental patient/insane/mad
- Wheelchair-bound
- Mentally defective
- Dwarf/midget
- Special needs
- Handicapable/differently abled/special abilities
- Defect/defective
- Victim of/sufferer of
- Normal (when contrasting with disabled)
Note: While some disabled people and disability communities have reclaimed certain terms for themselves (for example, “cripple” or “crip”), they should never be used unless explicitly invited to.
We recognise that:
- Language preferences vary globally.
- Some communities have strong language or definition preferences.
- Views and language continue to evolve.
- There’s no universal “right” approach.
We commit to:
- Using clear, respectful language
- Following disabled people’s lead
- Creating welcoming environments
- Learning from mistakes and feedback
- Taking action to remove barriers.

Our Accessibility Commitment

Valuable 500 ensures all our products and services are as accessible as possible. This covers:

Physical spaces and events.
Digital products and services.
Internal and external communications.

Our website follows Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) Level AA standards. See our Accessibility Statement for details.
We ensure accessibility through:
- Alt text and image descriptions.
- Camel case hashtags.
- Human-reviewed captions.
- High contrast visuals.
- Clear formatting.
- Using emojis sparingly.
All our videos include:
- Captions on all video content, using embedded subtitle files or Youtube’s captioning tool.
- Audio description for on-screen text and speaker descriptions in interviews and panel sessions.
We provide:
- Digital PDFs: Screen-reader accessible PDFs, remediated by accessibility experts, with Microsoft Word alternatives available
- Microsoft Office documents: Built-in accessibility features in Word and PowerPoint to ensure readability
- Easy-read formats: Alternative versions for people with learning disabilities or English language learners
It is not always possible to control the accessibility of external events we attend, but we will not participate in any events that do not provide closed captioning at the very minimum.

For our own events, we provide:
- Accessible registration and joining process.
- Human-generated live captioning.
- Audio description of visual materials and speakers.
- Other accommodations like sign language interpretation upon request.
All our podcast content includes human-reviewed transcripts.
We use Microsoft Teams and Zoom for their built-in accessibility features, including live captioning.

Standards & Practices

This is a constantly evolving statement of intent.

Our Commitment to Inclusion

How We Work

Our Approach to Disability

Identity and Experience

Language and Communication

Our Accessibility Commitment