An increase in people with disabilities in boardrooms and corporate leadership isn’t always translating to more inclusive workplaces for rank-and-file employees.
Of the 415 companies that participated in the 2022 nonprofit Disability:IN’s Disability Equality Index Report, 30% have at least one senior executive who is disabled and 6% have someone who identifies as disabled serving on their corporate boards. The companies surveyed include large employers such as Starbucks Corp.,Twitter Inc., and Amazon.com Inc.
The 2021 DEI report—which surveyed a smaller pool of companies—showed that only 10% said they had any senior executives who identified as disabled.
“If we want to advance and make a culture where people with disabilities belong, we need to know about people with disabilities, leaders with disabilities,” said Jill Houghton, president and CEO of Disability:IN, a nonprofit resource for business disability inclusion that compiles the report. “It starts at the top.”
About 80% of employers list disability inclusion in statements about commitment to diversity, according to the DEI Report.
