London, 19th May: On Global Accessibility Awareness Day, international disability company, the Valuable 500, publishes new research revealing intensified efforts to improve disability inclusion within business.

The 2022 Valuable Truth Report, conducted across the businesses within the Valuable 500 collective, acknowledges a stronger focus on accessibility in business. Access The 2022 Valuable Truth Report.

58% of companies surveyed have started or invested in exploring inclusive innovation opportunities. However, 33% have not developed or begun to implement a digital focus on accessibility. 29% of companies have a targeted network of disabled consumers or stakeholders. Although 32% of companies use customer insights, they are not targeted at disabled customers and 25% do not engage in consumer or stakeholder insights at all.

We are at a tipping point where there is an ongoing need to take more action for inclusivity for both consumers and employees. Disability is not a minority issue and businesses can no longer afford to ignore the value of more than one billion people. The disabled community represents $8 trillion a year in disposable income, according to estimates, and $13 trillion when including friends and family.

When taken in combination, the statistics emphasise that we’re at a global tipping point in which more inclusive action is needed for both disabled consumers and employees.  Now more than ever, Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (DEI) is at the forefront of customers’ and employees’ perceptions of businesses. But it’s time to talk about the missing “A”. There’s a growing movement to ensure that accessibility is added into inclusion strategies, DEIA, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. This move makes fiscal sense for companies as research has shown that consumers need to see themselves represented to create lasting brand loyalty. and employees need to feel secure and seen in the workplace in order to be at peak performance.

The research highlights a misunderstanding of how digital accessibility and accommodations impact people with disabilities. However, there are positive indicators, as 81% of those surveyed declared an improvement on their pre-pandemic disability strategies, with 87% now charting DE&I efforts within their annual report. Businesses need to be experts and advocates for digital accessibility and accommodate a wide variety of disabilities at all levels of business. There is a need to do this internally for their employees and externally for consumers.

Advanced disability efforts are reflected across other business processes, from recruitment to advertising. For many, a consideration of disability is now central to recruitment processes, to improve disabled representation and foster an inclusive work ethos from the offset. 65% report adjusting their interview process, 74% advertise as an inclusive employer and 62% explicitly encourage applications from disabled candidates.

Improved inclusion strategies are likewise evident in the businesses’ active investments in additional disability services. Specifically, 70% of respondents have a resource network and a support group in place for disabled employees and 59% have a dedicated internal role or executive sponsor to advance disability inclusion. Furthermore, 69% of respondents feature people with disabilities in their communications or marketing campaigns.

The data demonstrates encouraging progress with 70% of respondents expressing a desire for further guidance in creating inclusive campaigns and 77% seeking case studies in other inclusive campaigns. This attitude reflects the Valuable 500’s ethos, which aims to share learnings and ultimately accelerate inclusion initiatives.

One year on from announcing 500 members, today the Valuable 500 additionally announces new commitments from 5 global companies to put disability inclusion on boardroom agendas. New members, spanning sectors from finance to cosmetics and hospitality, include PayPal, Yahoo, European Investment Bank, Ralph Lauren, and Accor. With the addition of these new signatories, the Valuable 500 now has combined revenue of $23 trillion USD and employs over 22 million people. The membership now includes 37 of the FTSE 100 companies, 44 of the Fortune 500, and 28 of the Nikkei, demonstrating the extent of the movement’s influence.

As the Valuable 500 embarks on the 3rd year of its mission, it intends to build on this momentum by promoting disability self-identification at C-suite level and pioneering robust disability data collection strategies among its members. The collective hopes to tackle the issues that persist at board level across organisations by doing so. Indeed, with only 15% of companies reporting disability at board level and just 3% of leaders openly discussing their own disability, the research also underscores the need for businesses to lead by example and promote a top-down approach to disability inclusion.

Today, the addition of 5 new international companies is a testament to the growing traction of our fight for disability inclusion. We welcome the additional sector specialisms that our new members bring. However, we must not overlook the scale of the remaining challenges for disability inclusion that persist in both business and society. Only by continuing to champion systematic change will we drive a cultural shift and reap the social and economic benefits of catering to this underserved community. There’s research that shows that friends and family of disabled individuals are brand loyal to companies that are disability-friendly.

Caroline Casey, Founder of the Valuable 500

 

We strive to foster an environment where people with disabilities face no barriers, feel empowered to be themselves, and have access to the support and adjustments they need to thrive. We’re proud to be a member of the Valuable 500.

Bob Moritz – PwC Global Chairman

 

Our ultimate goal is to extend this commitment across Fujitsu globally and through the solutions we develop with our customers and partners, to enhance digital accessibility across all sectors, using technology to remove barriers for all people with disabilities.

Paul Patterson – Fujitsu, CE0 for Northern & Western Europe services,

 

Media contacts

For interviews and further information, please contact:

Elysia Taylor-Hearn, Seven Hills

Richard Poston, Chief of Communications, the Valuable 500