Companies that are part of the Fortune 1000 and/or the Fortune Global 500 or law firms among the Am Law 200 are eligible to participate in the Disability Equality Index as are organizations of similar size and scope. Generally, companies featured on comparable in-country lists operating within the Disability Equality Index countries of Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Japan, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom are also invited to participate.
Other organizations eligible to participate include the following, provided they have 500 or more full-time employees in the countries being benchmarked as of Jan. 1, 2023:
- Private sector (for-profit, non-government) employers that are not owned by a larger incorporated entity
- Businesses owned by a larger incorporated entity must be rated and represented on the Disability Equality Index and its related publications as part of the larger entity. Exceptions to this policy are made on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the Disability Equality Index staff, typically only for those businesses in a temporary restructuring process (e.g., temporarily owned or taken private by a private equity firm before being spun off as an independent entity or sold), or for situations where a subsidiary entity wishes to participate under the condition that the larger entity will participate in a subsequent year.
- Businesses that serve as a subsidiary of a foreign-based multinational business
- Foreign-owned private companies on behalf of their operations in the country being benchmarked