Speaker 1: There's a young boy the words that has occurred up
Speaker 1: from our surgery prosthetic picture bergery telling me I'm normal,
Speaker 1: but normal? Would they never really make me see? They
Speaker 1: are always painting discriminated. But in the last episode, we
Speaker 1: looked at accessibility and inclusive design and learned that the
Speaker 1: global unemployment rate for disabled people is somewhere between fifty
Speaker 1: and sev In this episode, we ask why this is
Speaker 1: the case and what brands and activists are doing to
Speaker 1: change the global picture for the disabled community. Join me
Speaker 1: as I speak to disabled entrepreneurs, leaders from companies trying
Speaker 1: to change hiring cultures to become more inclusive, and we
Speaker 1: ask how can we create a more equitable workplace moving forward.
Speaker 1: I'm Sophie Morgan. This is equal to episode five, equal
Speaker 1: to the Hunt for Employment Equality. The first time I
Speaker 1: tried getting a job jobs like washing dishes, folding laundry,
Speaker 1: I kept getting discriminated against. When I learned about four
Speaker 1: tens as a foreigner kind of blew my mind. I
Speaker 1: had no idea, but it was legal in America to
Speaker 1: play people with disabilities less standing of wage. You don't
Speaker 1: have to be able to see to wash dishes or
Speaker 1: fold laundry, but the employers assumed site was required, so
Speaker 1: they passed me over. There are many more people with
Speaker 1: disabilities in the world who don't feel that they can
Speaker 1: be open about their disability, and particularly in the workplace.
Speaker 1: If we're going to be committed and executed the building
Speaker 1: a better working world, that world's got to be inclusive
Speaker 1: for off and and that world is almost by definition,
Speaker 1: incredibly diverse. Once a look with Gutman created the Paralympic
Speaker 1: Games following the Second World War. His vision was to
Speaker 1: use sports to rehabilitate people with spinal cord injury back
Speaker 1: into society. In four a Jewish doctor who was a
Speaker 1: refugee from Nazi Germany started a new spinal injuries unit
Speaker 1: at Stoke Manderville Hospital, and to do this he gave
Speaker 1: them the confidence and the skills needed to join the
Speaker 1: workforce again. Almost more than any other outcome, Gutman believed
Speaker 1: that employment mattered most. The Paralympics may have evolved from
Speaker 1: a small archery competition into one of the largest sporting
Speaker 1: events in the world, but has it made the impact
Speaker 1: on employment that Gutman would be proud of? To answer
Speaker 1: it plainly, many of the incredible athletes that we've watched
Speaker 1: compete in the Tokyo Games can't even make a living
Speaker 1: from playing sport. Many survive on benefits. Take New Zealand's
Speaker 1: Paralympic team, for example, of the twenty nine people who
Speaker 1: represented New Zealand this year, only seven of them are
Speaker 1: considered full time employees. Or take a look at Annie
Speaker 1: is Chiconggo from Namibia, Go miss In Fred Chicongo wearing
Speaker 1: him down, Going miss Justin Fred Chicago's got in Chicongo,
Speaker 1: Drive through Chicongo one it from Gomez in second, silver,
Speaker 1: third fan, fourth Paralympic record two. At his second Paralympic Games,
Speaker 1: the visually impaired sprinter returned home from the Rio Paralympics
Speaker 1: with the country's first ever Paralympic gold medal. He hoped
Speaker 1: that his success might have the very least facilitate an
Speaker 1: interview for a job with the police, but he couldn't
Speaker 1: even get an interview. Now, it would be easy to
Speaker 1: assume that his disability justified such prejudicial behavior. People might
Speaker 1: justify it thinking how could a blind man be a policeman?
Speaker 1: But therein lies the problem. The lack of employment is
Speaker 1: not because disabled people on mass are unskilled or unqualified,
Speaker 1: but because we live in a world where our differences
Speaker 1: make us lesser, where limits are placed upon us, where
Speaker 1: what's possible is dictated to us. In short, we live
Speaker 1: in an ablest world. And when you start looking into
Speaker 1: employment for disabled people in society more generally, we have
Speaker 1: a lot of work to do. Statistics vary by country,
Speaker 1: but one thing is the same. All around the world,
Speaker 1: employment levels for disabled people are much lower than for
Speaker 1: non disabled people. In the UK it's fifty two for
Speaker 1: disabled people compared with eighty one percent for non disabled people.
Speaker 1: In the USA it's thirty five point two percent compared
Speaker 1: with seventy seven point six percent. In Australia it's percent
Speaker 1: compared with and these are just the countries where we
Speaker 1: can source the data. It's a well known problem that
Speaker 1: when it comes to collecting the figures around disability employment,
Speaker 1: it's not always straightforward. What we do know, however, is
Speaker 1: that the COVID pandemic has made the situation even worse.
Speaker 1: As French power as Leach Charles Catherine, the Associate director
Speaker 1: at the National Organization on Disability, tells US, I think
Speaker 1: the pandemic was a magnifier of issues that we've been
Speaker 1: facing for decades for our community. People with disabilities are
Speaker 1: usually underemployed, and when there are employed, are usually more vulnerable.
Speaker 1: And so there was a phenomenon called last hired, first
Speaker 1: fired that really took place in May, June, July, August
Speaker 1: when the crisis really hit UM And and it's true
Speaker 1: that millions of people with disabilities last for jobs at
Speaker 1: that time, and for for people like myself who really
Speaker 1: fight too fanail to sometimes create ten or a hundred
Speaker 1: jobs in the company, to see a million jobs disappear
Speaker 1: like this in just you know, a few weeks was
Speaker 1: was crushing. We may not have the exact figures, but
Speaker 1: what we do know is that the situation for disabled
Speaker 1: people all around the world currently is not good. So
Speaker 1: what is being done about it? So The Ability People
Speaker 1: is an organization that I co founded with my business
Speaker 1: part Steve carter Um, and it's staffed entirely by people
Speaker 1: with impairments and disabilities and medical conditions. Liz Johnson is
Speaker 1: a former Paralympic gold medalist for Paralympics GB. After her
Speaker 1: retirement from swimming in two thousand and sixteen, she founded
Speaker 1: The Ability People, an agency to help disabled people get
Speaker 1: jobs and the view is to normalize differences within the workplace.
Speaker 1: But my primary aim was to create more meaningful opportunities
Speaker 1: for people with disabilities. Liz explained that she was inspired
Speaker 1: to create the Ability People due to the fact that
Speaker 1: the employment gap for disabled people was stuck at thirty
Speaker 1: percent and that figure had not moved in over a decade.
Speaker 1: Then I was like, well, what what is that? What
Speaker 1: is it? Why is it that this is not moving? Like,
Speaker 1: what is the issue? Is it that people don't want jobs?
Speaker 1: Is it that people can't work, or is it the
Speaker 1: fact that they're not understood, or is it the fact
Speaker 1: that the system is letting them down? And the reality
Speaker 1: is all of the above, because because the one thing
Speaker 1: we need to remember is people with disabilities, they're human.
Speaker 1: So like the spread of like their abilities and their
Speaker 1: needs and all is no difference to the rest of
Speaker 1: the population. So you're going to find people that are
Speaker 1: qualified or don't have no incentive to work. But but
Speaker 1: the the issue in this space specifically was that those
Speaker 1: that did want to work didn't have an equitable experience
Speaker 1: or opportunity to access employment. And even though Liz found
Speaker 1: her career and her platform through the Paralympics. She brought
Speaker 1: up one of the big issues of talking about disability
Speaker 1: employment in the context of the Games. Not everyone is
Speaker 1: a Paralympian. They're Paralympians, so rightly or wrongly, sometimes that
Speaker 1: opens the door for you, right and sometimes people are
Speaker 1: blinded by the fact that you you, you might and
Speaker 1: I'll be able to do that job. But if you're
Speaker 1: a Paralympian, we're going to give you a chance. And
Speaker 1: my frustration came from the fact that, like I said,
Speaker 1: people aren't Paralympians, and probably them don't want to be
Speaker 1: like nobody like a lot of time when you're young
Speaker 1: and your aspirations to be an athlete or a football
Speaker 1: or whatever it is. But like in reality, the majority
Speaker 1: of people don't want to go to the Oalympics or
Speaker 1: they don't want to have a life that isn't an athlete.
Speaker 1: That's fine, And for those who aren't athletes, the job
Speaker 1: market for disabled people is equally, if not more challenging.
Speaker 1: You may remember Harbon Gurma from our conversation on law. Here.
Speaker 1: She is as a deaf, blind Harvard graduate talking about
Speaker 1: her own experiences of looking for work. Employment discrimination is
Speaker 1: a huge problem over seventy of blind people are under unemployed,
Speaker 1: and the statistics for deaf blind people are even higher.
Speaker 1: And I grew up with those statistics, with the constant
Speaker 1: fear that I would not be able to get a job.
Speaker 1: And the first time I tried getting a job jobs
Speaker 1: like washing dishes or folding laundry, I kept getting discriminated against.
Speaker 1: Those are tactle jobs. You don't have to be able
Speaker 1: to see to wash dishes or bold laundry, but the
Speaker 1: employers assumed site was required, so they passed me over.
Speaker 1: Assumptions like these stem from a lack of understanding. Not
Speaker 1: every disabled person will need extra support and accommodations to
Speaker 1: do a job, but when they do, employers in places
Speaker 1: like America and the UK should be making reasonable adjustments
Speaker 1: to support disabled people in the workplace. But what does
Speaker 1: that actually mean? Eddie and Doppu, who you might remember
Speaker 1: was also in the episode about law, thinks that this
Speaker 1: type of woolie language is problematic. I've got a bit
Speaker 1: of beasts with the language around reasonable accommodation, right, I
Speaker 1: have always had. And it's at a philosophical level. Question
Speaker 1: I asked myself is what is reasonable? Who is who
Speaker 1: is reasonable who is being unreasonable? Right? And and the
Speaker 1: reason why this is important is because when we demand
Speaker 1: more um, we get seen as being unreasonable. So legal
Speaker 1: support doesn't always help. And in some countries the legislation
Speaker 1: can even prevent disabled people from working. Facundo have as
Speaker 1: Penniless is a U and human rights and disability advisor,
Speaker 1: and he spoke about some countries with shocking laws. We
Speaker 1: have laws that for example, we want when we are
Speaker 1: not working, so they're excluding us through and the social
Speaker 1: protection system and not to be part of the of
Speaker 1: the workforce. And and that is changing like in Argentine.
Speaker 1: Now in New Zealand, UM there are laws that say
Speaker 1: that we cannot work at all, and that also is changing,
Speaker 1: like in some Zimbabwe or Samoa. But none of these
Speaker 1: changes can happen without an active to society behind them,
Speaker 1: right and your understanding of what is to be a
Speaker 1: person with disability. What has become apparent through this conversation
Speaker 1: is that increasing the confidence and skills of disabled people
Speaker 1: is not enough if they get turned away when they
Speaker 1: apply for jobs. And we see once again the disabled
Speaker 1: people have to self advocate for legal and physical access
Speaker 1: to the workplace. We need something more. We need workplaces
Speaker 1: around the world to acknowledge the problem and to commit
Speaker 1: to changing it. At DAVAS two thousand and nineteen, we
Speaker 1: put disability inclusion center stage for the first time and
Speaker 1: made a worldwide call. So this is a crisis, but
Speaker 1: there is a solution to help end the disability inequality crisis.
Speaker 1: The Valuable five hundred is a global movement of five
Speaker 1: hundred big businesses from Apple to zero insurance, but aims
Speaker 1: to equalize the playing field for disabled people. It provides
Speaker 1: companies with resources and support on aspects such as workforce
Speaker 1: governance and learning opportunities. The tagline is disability is Our Business,
Speaker 1: something that should be true for every workplace. Hank Pribilski
Speaker 1: is the Global Vice Chair for Transformation at e Y
Speaker 1: previously known as Ernst and Young. He has also their
Speaker 1: Global Exact Sponsor and Disability Inclusion. E Y is one
Speaker 1: of the biggest consulting firms in the world and they
Speaker 1: were one of the founding members of the Valuable five hundred.
Speaker 1: Exact producers said asked him how and why the company
Speaker 1: lead the way. If we're going to be committed and
Speaker 1: executed building a better working world, that world's got to
Speaker 1: be inclusive for all, and that world is almost by
Speaker 1: definition incredibly diverse. So when you think about that opportunity
Speaker 1: for bringing together that diverse world and inclusive environment, you know,
Speaker 1: we just see that so core. Uh in the area
Speaker 1: of diverse abilities, we see, Um, we're proud of what
Speaker 1: we've accomplished, but we see so much more opportunity head
Speaker 1: and I think it's a little bit of that, you know,
Speaker 1: that continual push to drive and do more in align
Speaker 1: with others who share those goals. Um. You know, if
Speaker 1: you look at some some areas, like in the America's
Speaker 1: where we've been a leader in the Disability Equality Index
Speaker 1: for the top five years. Were very proud of that,
Speaker 1: but we also recognize, you know, we have a long
Speaker 1: way to go. And sometimes that's we look at different
Speaker 1: parts of our world where we may be farther ahead
Speaker 1: in one world than another. But when you really look
Speaker 1: at the value of five hundred UM, it is a
Speaker 1: great way of sharing best practices. It's creating an alignment
Speaker 1: of five companies, and think about the size and scale
Speaker 1: of that. It's over twenty million employees, thirty six different
Speaker 1: headquartered country ease I think eight trillion in revenue represented
Speaker 1: by that group and and you know, sharing best practices,
Speaker 1: learning from each other, and as we said earlier, challenging
Speaker 1: each other, you know, bringing your authentic self to work
Speaker 1: inclusive and employment journey, accessible inclusive workplace and really lastingly,
Speaker 1: equipping all our employees to be disability inclusive and really
Speaker 1: rallying that around. I think that's you know, we've enjoyed that, um,
Speaker 1: the camaraderie within the five hundred, We've we've enjoyed the learnings,
Speaker 1: and I mean we're enjoy the competitiveness of of each
Speaker 1: pushing each other. E Y have a great track record
Speaker 1: in this space, and it's great to see brands and
Speaker 1: corporations like e Y helping to bring around meaningful change.
Speaker 1: I wanted to get an idea of how the Valuable
Speaker 1: Five work in practice. Esther Berberg, who we heard in
Speaker 1: the last episode, works at the fashion brand Tommy Hill Figure.
Speaker 1: Her role is responsible for everything related to sustainable business
Speaker 1: and in the nation. We asked Esther how aspects of
Speaker 1: diversity and inclusion fit into the idea of a sustainable company.
Speaker 1: What we're doing at the moment is also in line
Speaker 1: with the pledge of the Valuable Um. We're we're creating
Speaker 1: a strategy that um, this dismantles able is m within
Speaker 1: the organization so as we say it, So that means
Speaker 1: that we need better measures to hire people and to
Speaker 1: to make sure that people with disabilities also feel like
Speaker 1: they belong, but also to create a different attitude within
Speaker 1: the organization towards people with a disability. So that's I
Speaker 1: think a really important part. UM. We're doing at the
Speaker 1: moment a big review of our talent practices in Europe
Speaker 1: for instance, with an eye on inclusion and diversity. So
Speaker 1: what are all the leavers when we hire, when we retain,
Speaker 1: when we promote people, and how can we actually give
Speaker 1: the disadvantaged communities or the underrepresented communities, um, you know,
Speaker 1: a better a better platform, so create a more equitable
Speaker 1: situation uh and help them to be more represented at
Speaker 1: different levels um. Recently we had a talk also around
Speaker 1: neurodiversity UM. And there are actually people also from the
Speaker 1: company that spoke up about how they were new or
Speaker 1: diverse and what that meant. And it opened up so
Speaker 1: many doors for conversation, but also so many opportunities for
Speaker 1: people to say like, oh, okay, so if I act
Speaker 1: a little bit more like that or that then that
Speaker 1: actually helps you and it makes it all you know,
Speaker 1: more agreeable for you, um and and for us in
Speaker 1: the end as well. And that connection and that that
Speaker 1: conversation really has to happen because first people need to
Speaker 1: be aware and then they need to feel like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you know, we're all co owner of the of the
Speaker 1: fact that we need to make this a place where
Speaker 1: people all feel they belong and in the end, you know,
Speaker 1: all of us become better if a workplace is more diverse.
Speaker 1: It's not only the people from the underrepresented groups. Everybody
Speaker 1: benefits from it, because a more diverse environment is just
Speaker 1: a more rich environment, and you will get better ideas
Speaker 1: and better books and you know, more fun. I think
Speaker 1: in the thinking about disability, equity under the umbrella of
Speaker 1: sustainability is an idea that other innovators have utilized. After all,
Speaker 1: disabled people aren't going away, so making a workplace disability
Speaker 1: friendly is making it future proof. Christina Mallon spoke in
Speaker 1: the last episode about the design and marketing considerations for
Speaker 1: different lived experiences, but much of her work is through
Speaker 1: the framing of social sustainability. I've used social sustainability kind
Speaker 1: of as the term when I'm explaining what I do
Speaker 1: because there's so much talk around sustainability, but people only
Speaker 1: really talk about climate sustainability. But it's much broader. So
Speaker 1: when you know, we look at the u N sustainability goals,
Speaker 1: many of them are about social issues and if you
Speaker 1: can link it to the u N sustainability goals, people's
Speaker 1: it starts to click more. Also, there's budgets, usually there's sustainability,
Speaker 1: but there's heads of sustainability at companies. There's not a
Speaker 1: lot of heads of disability. Movements like the valuable five
Speaker 1: hundred and concepts like social sustainability are useful as frameworks
Speaker 1: to show the possibility to measure success. But most importantly,
Speaker 1: they proved the need to employ people with disabilities, especially
Speaker 1: since the pandemic, when the number of people working from
Speaker 1: home in Britain nearly doubled from twelve point four percent
Speaker 1: to twenty five point nine in companies realize it is
Speaker 1: possible to accommodate disabled people without compromising their workflow. In
Speaker 1: this podcast, we have disabled people from all over the
Speaker 1: UK and Canada who have been able to fulfill their
Speaker 1: roles with no problems due to the modern technology on offer.
Speaker 1: There is a huge opportunity coming out of the pandemic
Speaker 1: to support disabled people to gain more flexible working commitments
Speaker 1: which suit their daily needs and attributes better than an
Speaker 1: office nine to five. But we have to ensure that
Speaker 1: we take this opportunity to change working cultures to ensure
Speaker 1: that this progress continues as we move out of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: The employment numbers are looking pretty good since um, you know,
Speaker 1: June July, because the industry that is bouncing back the
Speaker 1: fastest are industries that um tend to hire more people
Speaker 1: disabilities and average, so that's restoration, tourism, grocery stores, and
Speaker 1: so the numbers are now higher than they were, you know,
Speaker 1: around two thousand, eight thousand nine, So that is very encouraging,
Speaker 1: but we're still at what we look is not so
Speaker 1: much unemployment but workforce participation rate, and so now it's
Speaker 1: around thirty for people disabilities against about seven for the
Speaker 1: rest of the population. So we're still at half and
Speaker 1: we know that it should be much higher than this.
Speaker 1: So if it's better and we're bouncing back, but the
Speaker 1: crisis has clearly shown that people disabilities were more vulnerable too.
Speaker 1: If we're losing for her job or being laid off
Speaker 1: but as much as the pandemic has brought some opportunities,
Speaker 1: there is a long way to go for disabled people
Speaker 1: to have true equality of opportunity and employment in the
Speaker 1: US as well as across much of the world. In
Speaker 1: many US states, they're still upholding a shocking piece of
Speaker 1: legislation called four teen C, which allows employers to pay
Speaker 1: sub minimum wages to disabled people if the employer believes
Speaker 1: that their disability impairs their productivity for the work they perform.
Speaker 1: Charles Catherine, who we heard earlier, adds to this, talking
Speaker 1: about the disproportionate impact that COVID had had on job
Speaker 1: losses for disabled people in the first year of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: When I learned about four teen C as as a foreigner,
Speaker 1: kind of blew my mind. I had no idea that
Speaker 1: it was legal in America to pay people with disability
Speaker 1: is less standing on wage. You know, it was part
Speaker 1: of in I think thirty eight as a progressive legislation,
Speaker 1: and I think it probably was. But now it's completely outdated.
Speaker 1: And you know, although a few states have phased out
Speaker 1: of four tency, it's still a minority. It's about, um,
Speaker 1: you know, a handful. But Charles says the plans are
Speaker 1: in motion now to bring an end to this humiliating
Speaker 1: and discriminateshy piece of legislation across the US for good.
Speaker 1: What we're trying to do with energy is advocate at
Speaker 1: the federal level uh TO to change and phase out
Speaker 1: of four tency and there are a few initiatives that
Speaker 1: are out there. The most popular one is the Transformation
Speaker 1: to Competitive Employment ACTUM, which might be introduced in the
Speaker 1: Senate pretty soon UM. And that is what we think
Speaker 1: as a as a good solution, balanced solution to phase
Speaker 1: out of four tency over time and with appropriate support
Speaker 1: for companies because it's a significant change. Right, there's hundreds
Speaker 1: of thousand people disabilities in America that penny for hours
Speaker 1: for a really hard jobs and that has been allowed
Speaker 1: by the government because we don't really think about those
Speaker 1: as jobs. We think of it more as support right
Speaker 1: for people's disabilities and things to do. We spoke with
Speaker 1: a para athlete from Afghanistan called Nila f bay At.
Speaker 1: Nilopha was the captain of the Afghans women's wheelchair basketball
Speaker 1: team in Kabul. As the whole world knows, the Taliban
Speaker 1: have reasserted control across the country and their extremest attitudes
Speaker 1: towards women in work and sport or people with disabilities
Speaker 1: have started to take hold. This led to Nilopha leaving
Speaker 1: her home country where she was employed full time by
Speaker 1: the International Red Cross, to resettle as a refugee in
Speaker 1: bill Bao in Spain. She told us about her initial
Speaker 1: experiences in Spain and the lack of visibility for disabled
Speaker 1: people in employment, and she starts to look for a
Speaker 1: job for herself. When I'm working around, I see there
Speaker 1: is a lot of people. They have desible, some of
Speaker 1: them use willch here, some of them has crashed or
Speaker 1: some of them without that, but they have disability. But
Speaker 1: still I didn't see anyone to have a job, and
Speaker 1: I do know that it will happen with me as
Speaker 1: well or no, like the cr the office that they
Speaker 1: are helping and working for refugees here, Um, I didn't
Speaker 1: see anyone to have disability. Nil first observation is anecdotal,
Speaker 1: but there is evidence for it. In two thousand and nineteen,
Speaker 1: a third of the non disabled population in Spain were unemployed,
Speaker 1: Yet for people with disabilities it's reportedly nearly three quarters.
Speaker 1: I say reportedly, as the numbers can be skewed due
Speaker 1: to disclosure rates, as some disabled people do not like
Speaker 1: to disclose their disability publicly. Liz Johnson, who we had
Speaker 1: from earlier, explains, this is a bit of a double
Speaker 1: edged short. You want to be in a world where
Speaker 1: people don't have to tell you they have a disability
Speaker 1: in order to access and a fair opportunity. But similarly,
Speaker 1: you want to gauge how well you're doing. So it's difficult.
Speaker 1: So that and and sometimes that's why that number is
Speaker 1: load to start with. And actually when organizations are talking
Speaker 1: about wanting to be more inclusive, sometimes we're like, do
Speaker 1: you have the people already here? They just don't feel
Speaker 1: comfortable in this environment, or they're not able to show
Speaker 1: their true self, which is why when we interact with them,
Speaker 1: when we do pieces of work with them, the disclosure
Speaker 1: rate goes up because the messaging is there and people
Speaker 1: feel a lot more comfortable and understood. Yes I can, suddenly,
Speaker 1: yes I can, Gee, I'm afraid to go on has
Speaker 1: turned into yes I can. Dan Brooks, who we heard
Speaker 1: from in an earlier episode and it was one of
Speaker 1: the pioneers behind Channel Calls hiring of disabled talent to
Speaker 1: work on the Paralympic Games, agrees there are many more
Speaker 1: people with disabilities in the world who don't feel that
Speaker 1: they can be open about their disability, and particularly in
Speaker 1: the workplace, because they think that it will be it'll
Speaker 1: can against them. And what I would do to those
Speaker 1: people is I would say, I understand that, and I
Speaker 1: understand why it's the case that people who aren't disabled
Speaker 1: in companies may have some apprehension. If we come back
Speaker 1: to the beginning of the episode and look with Gutman's
Speaker 1: intent for the Paralympics to uplift disabled people in society,
Speaker 1: how close have we gotten to his goal. Thankfully, more
Speaker 1: businesses are now talking about the need for a more
Speaker 1: inclusive employment policy. But considering Gutman began the Paralympic movement
Speaker 1: in the progress being made is far too slow, and
Speaker 1: we also needed to find success because we cannot rely
Speaker 1: on numbers alone. As Eddie and Dopeu explained in our conversation,
Speaker 1: if we insist on those things culturally, um and socially
Speaker 1: and economically right and start seeing um, you know, disabled
Speaker 1: people as CEOs in the boardroom, you know, I think
Speaker 1: that creates a critical mass of disabled people with power
Speaker 1: and influence who can then you know, sort of spur
Speaker 1: um uh and and really catalyze the kind of broader,
Speaker 1: you know, human rights changes that we need. Right, So
Speaker 1: it starts with closing the disability of wealth gap as well, right,
Speaker 1: because let's be real, you know, most of us are
Speaker 1: living hand to mouth, even even even when we look successful.
Speaker 1: Let's expand on Eddie's point about living costs as a
Speaker 1: disabled person. According to the Disability Charity Scope, disabled people
Speaker 1: in the UK spend an average of five dred and
Speaker 1: fifty pounds a month on costs related to their disability.
Speaker 1: For one in ten, costs of this sort amount to
Speaker 1: over a thousand pounds a month. Disability is expensive no
Speaker 1: matter where you are in the world. In addition, of
Speaker 1: the estimated one billion disabled people in the world are
Speaker 1: living in developing countries. According to the w h O,
Speaker 1: disability and poverty are inextricably linked in many countries, including
Speaker 1: some of the world's most developed. Not only is there
Speaker 1: no legislation to promote equality of opportunity, but there is
Speaker 1: actually legislation that reinforces inequality and a two tier system
Speaker 1: to access the workplace if you are disabled. It is
Speaker 1: indisputable that it is likely to be harder for you
Speaker 1: to find work than if you are not. However, there
Speaker 1: is hope with initiatives like the Valuable five hundred supported
Speaker 1: by brands like e Y and Tommy Hill. Figure there
Speaker 1: is a global force for change, and whilst the pandemic
Speaker 1: undoubtedly had a negative disproportionate impact on people with disabilities
Speaker 1: in the workforce compared to the non disabled community, it
Speaker 1: has also shown employers that flexible working conditions enrich all
Speaker 1: employees experiences and can give employers access to a wider
Speaker 1: talent pool that they may have otherwise ignored. Join me
Speaker 1: in the final episode, when we'll be looking to the future,
Speaker 1: specifically thinking about the decade ahead. Will reflect on the
Speaker 1: impact that the Tokyo Paralympics has had on the world.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to leaders from the Paralympic movement and the
Speaker 1: wider disability sector about the potential of the next decade
Speaker 1: as the Paralympics head to Beijing. Harris Milan and Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: I've been your host, Sophie Morgan. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 1: These podcasts have been made possible because of the support
Speaker 1: of Procter and Gamble, P and G share our ambition
Speaker 1: to create a more equal world, a world where everyone
Speaker 1: can have equal access and the opportunity to thrive. We
Speaker 1: are very grateful for their partnership in making these conversations
Speaker 1: a reality. Of people with a direct involvement in the
Speaker 1: production of the podcast, including guests identify as disabled. This
Speaker 1: podcast was created by Greg Nugent, co founder of Harder
Speaker 1: Than You Think. I'm Sophie Morgan, your host and executive producer.
Speaker 1: Fellow executive producers are Chanaid Burke, Greg NuGen and Barnaby Spurrier,
Speaker 1: Laura i'ms Mark Pritchard and Kimberly Dobrnner. Thank you to
Speaker 1: the I p C and Channel four for their support
Speaker 1: and use of archive material. Thanks to our podcast production partner,
Speaker 1: Stripped Media, and also to Seneca Women for their assistance
Speaker 1: with distributing this show. If you want to follow the
Speaker 1: equal To story and join the conversation hashtag equal to,
Speaker 1: go to our website ht Whitey dot world, where you
Speaker 1: will also find the transcript and video versions of the podcast,
Speaker 1: along with subtitles and a BSL signed version in the
Speaker 1: coming days.