Disability inclusion in the workplace is about more than hiring people with disabilities. An inclusive workplace values all employees for their strengths. It offers employees with disabilities an equal opportunity to succeed, to learn, to be compensated fairly, and to advance. True inclusion is about embracing difference.
Organizations with inclusive cultures are twice as likely to meet or exceed financial targets, three times as likely to be high-performing, six times more likely to be innovative and agile, and eight times more likely to achieve better business outcomes.
A diverse workplace is a stronger workplace, and when disability inclusion is a natural part of the workplace, barriers will fall and employees will thrive.
And that’s why it’s always exciting to learn about companies that don’t just talk about inclusion and accessibility in PR terms, but actually live it every day.
The 2020 Disability Equality Index, joint initiative of Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities, charts the level of disability workplace inclusion of the Fortune 1000 and America’s top 200 revenue grossing law firms.
Now in its sixth official year, the index has seen an increase in year-over-year participation, with the number of top-scoring companies more than quadrupling to 205 in 2020 as compared to 43 in 2015. The number of employers on the list has increased from 48 to 247 over that same span, with a total workforce of 11 million people.
The index measures, among other things:
- Culture and leadership
- Enterprise-wide access
- Employment practices, such as benefits, recruitment, employment, education, retention and advancement, and accommodations
- Community engagement
- Supplier diversity
It objectively scores corporations on a scale from 0 to 100, with 100 representing the most inclusive. The index is quick to note that a score of 100 does not mean “perfection” as there is no single best way to practice inclusion. Rather, a 100 score reflects that a company adheres to many of the numerous leading disability inclusion practices.
Below is just a sample of some of the companies that scored high on the Index. We salute all those who made the list, and champion the cause of inclusion and accessibility in the workplace.
- Allstate
- Biogen
- Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals
- Boston Scientific
- Bristol Myers Squibb
- Capital One
- Caterpillar
- Colgate Palmolive
- CVS Health
- Dell Technologies
- Deloitte
- Dominion Energy
- Dun & Bradstreet
- Fannie Mae
- Fifth Third Bank
- Humana
- Johnson & Johnson
- Land O’Lakes
- Lowe’s
- Motorola
- Oracle
- Quest Diagnostics
- S&P Global
- Travelers
- Walmart
At VITAC, we work with clients every day to help create more inclusive businesses, whether it be providing captions for large-scale conferences or small group discussions or audio descriptive services for prerecorded videos.
We provide captions for a variety of remote meeting and webinar platforms, such as Zoom, WebEx, ON24, Adobe Connect, and GoToMeeting, that have fast become commonplace in just about every industry.
Reach out and speak to a representative today to learn more about how we can help your business, too.