The Valuable 500 celebrates the 2nd Anniversary of the companies’ commitment to disability inclusion and calls for action and accountability against its 3 pillars of Reporting, Leadership and Representation.
London, May 18, 2023: On Global Accessibility Awareness Day, the Valuable 500, the global business partnership of 500 companies working together to end disability exclusion, sets out its strategic roadmap to the end of 2025. It invites the 500 companies to take Synchronised Collective Action against the most significant systemic barriers to inclusion: Inclusive Reporting, C-Suite story telling /Leadership, and Representation.
The second Anniversary is being marked by an event hosted by and at the London Stock Exchange Group today, attended by some 40 FTSE 100’s calling for business leaders to adopt and disclose against 5 Disability Inclusion KPIs. This follows a similar event held in partnership with The Nippon Foundation in Tokyo involving 35 of the leading companies in Japan.
We are very proud of our commitment and of being a major contributor to shaping the disability inclusion framework that the Valuable 500 is developing together with 15 Iconic Leaders. There is a clear push for a more holistic and transparent view of companies from a variety of stakeholder groups, outside but also inside our company. That is just one of the many reasons we decided to launch our first ever DEI Booklet, we have included the Valuable 500 KPIs.
Being open and driving change is fundamental to what we stand for at LSEG and, with the Valuable 500, we’re proud to be taking action on disability exclusion – together, the business community can end it.
To mark Global Accessibility Awareness Day, the Valuable 500 celebrates some recent innovations from its companies that are ensuring people living with disabilities are afforded the same quality of digital experience.
Google has worked with blind and low-vision users to create its innovative new ‘Guided Frame’ feature for Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. The feature includes precise audio feedback and vibrations to help people capture the perfect picture without seeing the image displayed on the screen.
Microsoft partnered with the disability community to build new accessibility features for the Windows 11 2022 update. These accessible-by-design features include System-Wide Live Captions to automatically generate captions from any form of audio content on Windows 11, voice access that allows users to control their PCs and write text using only their voice, and Natural Voices for Narrator, which mirrors natural speech more closely.
In their latest initiative – Reset the Bar in Advertising Accessibility – Procter & Gamble have partnered with the World Federation of Advertisers, media owners, TV sales houses and other key industry partners to promote progress towards 100% advertising accessibility across Europe by 2025. P&G have a proven track record of pushing for ads with audio description and captioning to drive societal change and business impact. Whilst accessible advertising is the first step, the next step must include inclusive executions at the point of sale to transform consumers’ customer journey and raise further awareness. With an estimated 30 million adults in Europe living with limited vision, and 200 million with hearing loss, these consumers need access to inclusive ads.
L’Oréal recently launched accessible packaging to improve customer experiences with the brand. It developed a universal tool that allows consumers to hear audio product information via their smartphone by scanning a QR code on the packaging.
An estimated 50 million people globally live with limited fine motor skills. For these people, daily gestures, like applying makeup, can be incredibly challenging. Under development by L’Oréal scientists and engineers, HAPTA is a handheld, ultra-precise smart makeup applicator for users with limited hand and arm mobility, allowing them to apply lipstick at home steadily.
This year, Sony has announced further innovations in the USA with their launch of the DSC-HX99RNV kit. This is a new retinal projection camera kit that helps people with visual impairments to capture the world around them. This kit consists of Sony’s DSC-HX99 compact camera and QD Laser’s RETISSA NEOVIEWER, a viewfinder that uses laser retinal projection technology. Sony and QD Laser offer a new experience with focus-free retinal projection, allowing people with low vision a new, sharper way to view and photograph the world.
Today, we celebrate GAAD and the great work on accessibility innovation from many of our partners. Today, on our second Anniversary, we lay out our roadmap to 2025 so that together, we can transform business to transform society. Central to this work is tackling one of the most significant barriers to change: the lack of disability data in business. With the Synchronised Collective Action of our Valuable 500 companies reporting on disability performance in their annual reports, we will hold ourselves accountable, creating new frameworks and driving system change.
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About the Valuable 500
Launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in January 2019, the Valuable 500 is the global business partnership of 500 companies working together to end disability exclusion.
Since its creation, the Valuable 500 has achieved its initial goal of getting 500 multinational organisations to make a public commitment to disability inclusion in their organisation, igniting a historic global movement for a new age of diversity in business. The Valuable 500 and their global impact partner The Nippon Foundation, will be working closely with the World Economic Forum and International Disability Alliance – bringing together a leading philanthropic organisation with the most prestigious global business network and the voice of the global disability community.
By engaging with the world’s most influential business leaders and brands, the network now has a market cap of over $23 trillion, combined revenues of over $8 trillion and employs a staggering 22 million people worldwide. It includes 15 iconic global CEOs and companies who will be spearheading the programmes and services to be offered under Phase 2 of the transformation programme.
The Valuable 500 is determined to create a community that supports and empowers the 500 to systematically transform their businesses via synchronised collective actions, so they include the 1.3 billion people living with disabilities worldwide, thereby unlocking their business, social and economic potential. We believe that if business takes a lead, society and government will follow. Truly inclusive businesses can build truly inclusive societies.
