International Day of Persons with Disabilities (December 3rd) was marked by disability inclusion campaign The Valuable 500 announcing that 200 global companies had committed to leading on the inclusion of people with disabilities. The Adecco Group are among those taking up the initiative, addressing the issue this at Board level and signalling a huge step forward in the fight to achieve inclusion for the 1.3 billion disabled people worldwide, as employees, customers, suppliers and members of the community.
Alongside the Adecco Group in signing up were: Anglo American, Arup, Autotrader UK, Aviva, Beeline, Bradesco, British Airways, BT, Carnival UK, CIBC, DNP Indonesia, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, ghd, Greggs, IFF, ITV, Jurys Inn and Leonardo Hotels UK and Ireland , Linklaters LLP, Lloyd’s of London, McLaren Racing, Reed Smith, Salesforce, Savills (UK) Ltd, Sberbank, Syngenta, Telefonica, Tesco, The European Space Agency, TSB, Vodafone and XPS Pension Group. The initiative has attracted support from around the world with companies coming from Brazil, Canada, France, Russia, Spain, Indonesia, Switzerland, UK and USA.
Launched at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Summit in January, The Valuable 500 calls on 500 global businesses to commit to placing disability inclusion on their board agendas, making a firm commitment to eradicating the exclusion of disabled people in business.
Today, over one billion people across the world live with some form of disability – 15 per cent of the global population, or one in seven people – but their value is routinely ignored by business, equivalent to disregarding a potential market the size of US, Brazil, Indonesia and Pakistan combined.
Caroline Casey, Founder of The Valuable 500, said: “We commend the 200 CEOs and brands who are leading the way in creating an inclusive workplace by signing up to The Valuable 500. They are an example to other businesses within their sectors, and I hope they help to encourage their peers to follow suit.
“There are 1.3 billion disabled people in the world, with a market opportunity of $8 trillion. Business leaders have underestimated their value for too long, and it is fantastic to see that business leaders globally are committing to take tangible action for disability inclusion.”
To apply to be a Valuable 500 business, please visit thevaluable500.com.
