Speaker 1: Joining us now in studio is Caroline Casey, who is
Speaker 1: a disability activist and the founder of the Valuable five hundred.
Speaker 1: Good morning, Thank you so much for your time and
Speaker 1: for being with us on Bloomberg Radio. I suppose first
Speaker 1: of all, I'd just like to introduce the audience to
Speaker 1: what the Valuable five hundred is and what your campaign
Speaker 1: is all about, sort of trying to focus on disability.
Speaker 2: Well, the Valuable five hundred is the world's largest business
Speaker 2: partnership of five hundred organizations and their CEOs working together
Speaker 2: to accelerate global disability inclusion and like we have a
Speaker 2: unified purpose for system change, end of nothing less than
Speaker 2: and today with Global Accessibility Awareness Day, it's really putting
Speaker 2: our energy and force and power behinding ensuring that we
Speaker 2: disrupt the culture of digital and technology product design to
Speaker 2: make sure accessibility and inclusion is a core requirement. Why not?
Speaker 2: Why wouldn't we?
Speaker 3: And you've got big corporates falling over themselves to talk
Speaker 3: about D and I diversity and inclusion. But you say
Speaker 3: that CEO being silent on inclusiveness for people with disabilities.
Speaker 2: Well, so I think we should talk about de I
Speaker 2: and A accessibility right, But what the valuable five hundred
Speaker 2: we began for was to break the CEO silence because
Speaker 2: the CEO's at the top of the organizations, the choices
Speaker 2: they make are going to affect where the investment, where
Speaker 2: the energy and the intention is and without those CEOs
Speaker 2: we can create inclusive business. So we've broken that silence
Speaker 2: and today on our second birthday, on the eighteenth, we
Speaker 2: are announcing our next big move and that is really
Speaker 2: about getting our five hundred companies to start reporting on
Speaker 2: their disability performance, digital accessibility being one of them. And
Speaker 2: can I just say, we're sitting here in the offices
Speaker 2: in London, do you know that of our footy one
Speaker 2: hundred companies, thirty percent of them do not have accessible websites. Seriously,
Speaker 2: why would you stop people with disabilities and their families
Speaker 2: doing business with you?
Speaker 1: Okay, but I think for this and for other campaigns
Speaker 1: around other diversity issues, the problem is in delivering, isn't it.
Speaker 1: And we've been talking a lot about the Confederation of
Speaker 1: British Industry, the biggest lobby group in the UK. They
Speaker 1: are losing members because of a culture of sexual harassment,
Speaker 1: you know, for all the talk and they were leading
Speaker 1: partly that charge in the UK. For all the talk
Speaker 1: about inclusion and diversity and respect within the workplace, you
Speaker 1: know these issues are quite persistent. How do you make
Speaker 1: it more than lip service?
Speaker 3: Oh?
Speaker 2: Thank you. One of the biggest things that for us
Speaker 2: is accountability and we had those five hundred companies have
Speaker 2: to commit to a board level commitment over the last
Speaker 2: two years and we've seen them do that. I mean,
Speaker 2: it is extraordinary to see what has been done. But
Speaker 2: now what we believe is the only way to capture
Speaker 2: and to ensure accountability is to get our companies to
Speaker 2: report on their performance in their annual reports. So we
Speaker 2: will be calling out all are valuable five hundred companies.
Speaker 2: We've identified five key metrics. There are companies that agreed
Speaker 2: on whether it's about an E or G group, whether
Speaker 2: it's about digital accessibility, whether it's about training goals self ID.
Speaker 2: We want you to report because if we don't report it,
Speaker 2: we can't measure it and we can't manage.
Speaker 1: But that is a huge issue, isn't it. It's huge because,
Speaker 1: for example, the government mandated reporting around women's pay in
Speaker 1: the workplace. That is something the UK does. You can't
Speaker 1: do because well, yeah, there's also been a talk about
Speaker 1: doing this for ethnicity as well, but the difficulties around
Speaker 1: that it's quite difficult actually to pin down, isn't it,
Speaker 1: Because it's it's individuals who must come forward and explain
Speaker 1: their disabilities.
Speaker 3: And also Caroline talk about accountability. Not all disabilities are visible.
Speaker 3: Do you think there's still fear for people to disclose
Speaker 3: nerdiversity at work?
Speaker 2: This is the thing. Eighty percent of disability is invisible.
Speaker 2: Twenty percent of our global population lives with neurodiversity, neurodivergence
Speaker 2: or neurodiversity. I have a disability. My disability is invisible.
Speaker 2: You wouldn't know that I am registered blind. I think
Speaker 2: there still is a reticence to speak about your disability
Speaker 2: because it's how it's perceived in the world. If it's
Speaker 2: seen then less than or costly or you know, for us,
Speaker 2: the valuable five hundred is trying to shift that narrative
Speaker 2: to say, look at the value of this one point
Speaker 2: three billion people and the insight and the innovation they
Speaker 2: can bring and the growth because if you think about
Speaker 2: that one point three billion and a mother and a father,
Speaker 2: that's fifty four percent of our global economy. That's thirteen
Speaker 2: trillion spending power. That's value. So if we can see
Speaker 2: people with disabilities adding value, right, if you can see
Speaker 2: those role models, then people will disclose. But we don't
Speaker 2: see it now we are seeing changed, right. Look at
Speaker 2: the front cover of Vogue magazine. Wasn't it brilliant to
Speaker 2: see Selma Blair and Lola Love and Ellie Goldsting and
Speaker 2: Shneid Burke. When we start seeing positive examples of the
Speaker 2: value of people disability in the community, then I think
Speaker 2: people will come forward.
Speaker 3: Caroline, can I ask you, was part of the reason
Speaker 3: that you were inspired to start all this because of
Speaker 3: your own experience?
Speaker 2: Well, the real reason I've been at twenty three years
Speaker 2: an activist. I came out of the disability closet when
Speaker 2: I was working for a management consultancy and I've been
Speaker 2: hiding my disability. Today that we know that seven percent
Speaker 2: of our CEOs are living with the disability and four
Speaker 2: out of five of them are not disclosing it. How
Speaker 2: is that still case twenty years later? I created the
Speaker 2: value of five hundred out of sheer frustration. We need
Speaker 2: to see accelerated change, We need to see system change,
Speaker 2: and it is not possible unless we have business meaningfully
Speaker 2: at the table. Being accountable very important, doing action and
Speaker 2: having the will and intention. And I don't believe it
Speaker 2: can be resolved by one company or one CEO. It
Speaker 2: needs the power of a collective force that can can
Speaker 2: share with each other, fae with each other, learn together.
Speaker 2: But no more excuses.
Speaker 1: Okay? Are there enough skilled jobs people with disabilities? That
Speaker 1: that is a kind of crucial issue in the cost
Speaker 1: of living crisis? We know that that has affected certain
Speaker 1: communities more severely in some senses than others. Are there
Speaker 1: enough well paid skilled jobs for people with disabilities?
Speaker 2: Well, when we even say that, the word disability is
Speaker 2: a tiny word that covers so many vast experiences. And
Speaker 2: as Lizzie was saying, it's neurodiversity, its censor, it's physical,
Speaker 2: it's mental health, it's learning disabilities. There's not one size
Speaker 2: that fits all. Are there jobs? Of course there are jobs.
Speaker 2: If you want to serve a market that has one
Speaker 2: point three billion people who have different needs, how can
Speaker 2: you serve that market and attach yourself to that growth
Speaker 2: and opportunity without bringing that talent into the business And
Speaker 2: today being global accessibility wherein today I just want to
Speaker 2: say we need to bake in design in inclusion in
Speaker 2: the products and services that we are designing today and
Speaker 2: stop leaving disability or inclusion or accessibility as a sort
Speaker 2: of an afterthought. And if we want to grow, and
Speaker 2: if we want to capture the the insight and innovation
Speaker 2: that this community has to have, bring them in, employ them,
Speaker 2: work with them,