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Speaker 1: Joining us now in studio is Caroline Casey, who is

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Speaker 1: a disability activist and the founder of the Valuable five hundred.

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Speaker 1: Good morning, Thank you so much for your time and

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Speaker 1: for being with us on Bloomberg Radio. I suppose first

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Speaker 1: of all, I'd just like to introduce the audience to

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Speaker 1: what the Valuable five hundred is and what your campaign

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Speaker 1: is all about, sort of trying to focus on disability.

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Speaker 2: Well, the Valuable five hundred is the world's largest business

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Speaker 2: partnership of five hundred organizations and their CEOs working together

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Speaker 2: to accelerate global disability inclusion and like we have a

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Speaker 2: unified purpose for system change, end of nothing less than

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Speaker 2: and today with Global Accessibility Awareness Day, it's really putting

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Speaker 2: our energy and force and power behinding ensuring that we

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Speaker 2: disrupt the culture of digital and technology product design to

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Speaker 2: make sure accessibility and inclusion is a core requirement. Why not?

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Speaker 2: Why wouldn't we?

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Speaker 3: And you've got big corporates falling over themselves to talk

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Speaker 3: about D and I diversity and inclusion. But you say

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Speaker 3: that CEO being silent on inclusiveness for people with disabilities.

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Speaker 2: Well, so I think we should talk about de I

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Speaker 2: and A accessibility right, But what the valuable five hundred

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Speaker 2: we began for was to break the CEO silence because

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Speaker 2: the CEO's at the top of the organizations, the choices

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Speaker 2: they make are going to affect where the investment, where

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Speaker 2: the energy and the intention is and without those CEOs

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Speaker 2: we can create inclusive business. So we've broken that silence

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Speaker 2: and today on our second birthday, on the eighteenth, we

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Speaker 2: are announcing our next big move and that is really

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Speaker 2: about getting our five hundred companies to start reporting on

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Speaker 2: their disability performance, digital accessibility being one of them. And

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Speaker 2: can I just say, we're sitting here in the offices

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Speaker 2: in London, do you know that of our footy one

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Speaker 2: hundred companies, thirty percent of them do not have accessible websites. Seriously,

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Speaker 2: why would you stop people with disabilities and their families

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Speaker 2: doing business with you?

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Speaker 1: Okay, but I think for this and for other campaigns

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Speaker 1: around other diversity issues, the problem is in delivering, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: And we've been talking a lot about the Confederation of

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Speaker 1: British Industry, the biggest lobby group in the UK. They

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Speaker 1: are losing members because of a culture of sexual harassment,

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Speaker 1: you know, for all the talk and they were leading

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Speaker 1: partly that charge in the UK. For all the talk

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Speaker 1: about inclusion and diversity and respect within the workplace, you

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Speaker 1: know these issues are quite persistent. How do you make

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Speaker 1: it more than lip service?

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Speaker 3: Oh?

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Speaker 2: Thank you. One of the biggest things that for us

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Speaker 2: is accountability and we had those five hundred companies have

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Speaker 2: to commit to a board level commitment over the last

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Speaker 2: two years and we've seen them do that. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it is extraordinary to see what has been done. But

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Speaker 2: now what we believe is the only way to capture

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Speaker 2: and to ensure accountability is to get our companies to

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Speaker 2: report on their performance in their annual reports. So we

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Speaker 2: will be calling out all are valuable five hundred companies.

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Speaker 2: We've identified five key metrics. There are companies that agreed

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Speaker 2: on whether it's about an E or G group, whether

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Speaker 2: it's about digital accessibility, whether it's about training goals self ID.

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Speaker 2: We want you to report because if we don't report it,

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Speaker 2: we can't measure it and we can't manage.

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Speaker 1: But that is a huge issue, isn't it. It's huge because,

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Speaker 1: for example, the government mandated reporting around women's pay in

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Speaker 1: the workplace. That is something the UK does. You can't

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Speaker 1: do because well, yeah, there's also been a talk about

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Speaker 1: doing this for ethnicity as well, but the difficulties around

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Speaker 1: that it's quite difficult actually to pin down, isn't it,

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Speaker 1: Because it's it's individuals who must come forward and explain

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Speaker 1: their disabilities.

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Speaker 3: And also Caroline talk about accountability. Not all disabilities are visible.

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Speaker 3: Do you think there's still fear for people to disclose

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Speaker 3: nerdiversity at work?

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Speaker 2: This is the thing. Eighty percent of disability is invisible.

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Speaker 2: Twenty percent of our global population lives with neurodiversity, neurodivergence

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Speaker 2: or neurodiversity. I have a disability. My disability is invisible.

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Speaker 2: You wouldn't know that I am registered blind. I think

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Speaker 2: there still is a reticence to speak about your disability

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Speaker 2: because it's how it's perceived in the world. If it's

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Speaker 2: seen then less than or costly or you know, for us,

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Speaker 2: the valuable five hundred is trying to shift that narrative

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Speaker 2: to say, look at the value of this one point

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Speaker 2: three billion people and the insight and the innovation they

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Speaker 2: can bring and the growth because if you think about

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Speaker 2: that one point three billion and a mother and a father,

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Speaker 2: that's fifty four percent of our global economy. That's thirteen

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Speaker 2: trillion spending power. That's value. So if we can see

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Speaker 2: people with disabilities adding value, right, if you can see

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Speaker 2: those role models, then people will disclose. But we don't

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Speaker 2: see it now we are seeing changed, right. Look at

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Speaker 2: the front cover of Vogue magazine. Wasn't it brilliant to

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Speaker 2: see Selma Blair and Lola Love and Ellie Goldsting and

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Speaker 2: Shneid Burke. When we start seeing positive examples of the

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Speaker 2: value of people disability in the community, then I think

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Speaker 2: people will come forward.

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Speaker 3: Caroline, can I ask you, was part of the reason

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Speaker 3: that you were inspired to start all this because of

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Speaker 3: your own experience?

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Speaker 2: Well, the real reason I've been at twenty three years

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Speaker 2: an activist. I came out of the disability closet when

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Speaker 2: I was working for a management consultancy and I've been

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Speaker 2: hiding my disability. Today that we know that seven percent

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Speaker 2: of our CEOs are living with the disability and four

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Speaker 2: out of five of them are not disclosing it. How

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Speaker 2: is that still case twenty years later? I created the

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Speaker 2: value of five hundred out of sheer frustration. We need

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Speaker 2: to see accelerated change, We need to see system change,

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Speaker 2: and it is not possible unless we have business meaningfully

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Speaker 2: at the table. Being accountable very important, doing action and

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Speaker 2: having the will and intention. And I don't believe it

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Speaker 2: can be resolved by one company or one CEO. It

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Speaker 2: needs the power of a collective force that can can

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Speaker 2: share with each other, fae with each other, learn together.

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Speaker 2: But no more excuses.

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Speaker 1: Okay? Are there enough skilled jobs people with disabilities? That

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Speaker 1: that is a kind of crucial issue in the cost

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Speaker 1: of living crisis? We know that that has affected certain

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Speaker 1: communities more severely in some senses than others. Are there

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Speaker 1: enough well paid skilled jobs for people with disabilities?

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Speaker 2: Well, when we even say that, the word disability is

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Speaker 2: a tiny word that covers so many vast experiences. And

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Speaker 2: as Lizzie was saying, it's neurodiversity, its censor, it's physical,

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Speaker 2: it's mental health, it's learning disabilities. There's not one size

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Speaker 2: that fits all. Are there jobs? Of course there are jobs.

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Speaker 2: If you want to serve a market that has one

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Speaker 2: point three billion people who have different needs, how can

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Speaker 2: you serve that market and attach yourself to that growth

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Speaker 2: and opportunity without bringing that talent into the business And

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Speaker 2: today being global accessibility wherein today I just want to

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Speaker 2: say we need to bake in design in inclusion in

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Speaker 2: the products and services that we are designing today and

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Speaker 2: stop leaving disability or inclusion or accessibility as a sort

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Speaker 2: of an afterthought. And if we want to grow, and

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Speaker 2: if we want to capture the the insight and innovation

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Speaker 2: that this community has to have, bring them in, employ them,

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Speaker 2: work with them,