As investors representing over $5.79 trillion in assets under management, we believe companies must do more to include people with disabilities in the workforce. We want our portfolio companies to create sustainable, long-term value; this requires a workforce with a wide range of viewpoints, skills, abilities, and experiences. We believe, and research has demonstrated, that embracing inclusiveness is increasingly critical to the long-term success of corporations in the global marketplace.

According to The Disability Inclusion Imperative, a 2023 report published by Accenture and Disability:IN, companies that have led on key disability inclusion criteria during that time have realized 1.6x more revenue, 2.6x more net income, and 2x more economic profit than other participants in Disability:IN’s annual benchmark survey. They are also 25% more likely to outperform on productivity compared to their industry peers that have not participated in the survey, measured as revenue per employee.

In July 2018, 29% of working age people with disabilities were employed. Fast forward to July 2023 and the employment rate has increased to 37%. However, serious gaps persist when comparing employment levels of people with and without disabilities. Despite the increased employment rate of persons with disabilities, the labor force participation rate for persons with disabilities in 2023 is approximately half that of their counterparts without disabilities.

As investors, we seek to encourage our portfolio companies to capitalize on the opportunities of disability inclusion. To start, companies should analyze their disability inclusion policies through a third-party benchmarking tool such as the Disability Index. Tools like the index can provide companies a comprehensive assessment of their disability inclusion practices and identify opportunities to gain a competitive advantage by improving those practices.

We believe companies should adopt the following best practices:

• Ensure their public-facing inclusion and anti-discrimination statements specifically mention people with disabilities
• Establish a public, company-wide hiring goal for qualified candidates with disabilities and measure progress on achieving that goal
• Release a public statement from a senior executive (within first two layers of CEO), supporting a disability-focused employee resource group 
• Ensure the company’s disability accommodation policy is available to all employees and can be accessed in more than one way
• Develop a supplier inclusion program to include Disability-Owned Business Enterprises (DOBE®), Service-Disabled Veteran Disability-Owned Business Enterprises (SDV-DOBE™), and Veteran Disability-Owned Business Enterprises (V-DOBE™) and
• Audit the compliance of both internal and external websites under World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (W3C WCAG2.1).

We recognize that corporate disability inclusion will not be achieved overnight. However, we believe the competitive advantages companies realize from such inclusion contribute to long-term sustainability. As such, we strongly encourage our portfolio companies to strive to adopt the best practices identified above.

Learn more about the case for disability inclusion in ESG investing with our position paper.