This International Day of Persons with Disabilities, we are pleased to announce the coalition of investors has grown to 30 signatories of the Joint Investor Statement on Disability Inclusion, with TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank as the latest signatory.
This group, representing over $2.8 trillion dollars in assets, are calling on companies they invest in to make disability inclusion a top priority.
The Accenture report, “Getting to Equal: The Disability Inclusion Advantage,” documented that companies that recognize the value of the disability talent pool and leverage it, realized significant gains in profitability, value creation and shareholder returns, among other business benefits. The report was based on the Disability Equality Index, a comprehensive benchmarking tool leading companies use to build a roadmap of measurable, tangible actions towards disability inclusion and equality.
At Disability:IN, we are celebrating International Day of Persons with Disabilities with a commitment to double the number of new hires from 80,000 individuals with disabilities to 160,000 over the next three years in our Inclusion Works program.
With the unemployment rate for people with disabilities double that of people without disabilities, Disability:IN formed Inclusion Works six years ago to help companies create inclusive cultures and develop sustainable pipelines of talent with disabilities. Inclusion Works has grown to 60 brands and is supported in part by a grant from the May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust.
Additionally, we’re committed to connecting business with our global network of Disability-Owned Business Enterprises® (DOBE®s). As with other disadvantaged populations, many individuals with a disability turn to business ownership as a means of economic independence. Small business development is a growing, substantial form of employment, and DOBEs employ people with disabilities at 6-7 times the rate of their non-DOBE peers.
Disability is a natural part of the human experience and there are over one billion disabled people around the globe making us one of the largest sectors of diversity. Collectively, we cross every age, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. We are also an area of diversity that anyone can join at any time in their life (temporarily or permanently).
We encourage companies to use International Day of Persons with Disabilities to kick off a year-round commitment to inclusion. We’ve outlined what success looks like below – and we’re ready to help you get there. Join IN
- Hire Talent with Disabilities
- Contract with Disability-Owned Business Enterprises (DOBEs)
- Register to take the Disability Equality Index
