Inclusive business awards open for nominations

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19 Aug 2019

Business Disability Forum’s 2019 Disability Smart Awards are now open for nominations.
Each year these awards showcase and celebrate businesses and organisations which have demonstrated a clear and ongoing commitment to deliver for all customers and employees, both in the UK and globally.

Supported by Barclays, this year there are 11 awards categories. These include workplace experience, technology, diversity and inclusion practitioner, global leader and the popular Disabled People’s Choice Award. There are also four new award categories around design, influencing, customer service, and communications.

Diane Lightfoot, CEO, Business Disability Forum, said: “Through the Disability Smart Awards, we want to celebrate success, whilst challenging other organisations to become more accessible by raising the bar on inclusive business.”

Microsoft won the technology category last year for using cutting edge technologies to ensure their widely used products were as accessible to as many customers as possible. Hector Minto, Microsoft’s Tech Evangelist for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “Winning the Disability-Smart award was very good for us, not just because of the Windows work but for what people don’t see, which is the number of employees with disabilities working as engineers on the product. It is not somebody doing something for people with disabilities, it is blind engineers, it is deaf engineers, it is people working and bringing their life experience to our product to make it better.”

“There is so much built into the product that empowers people routinely. However, it really took the Disability Smart Award to get the message out clearly to the business world and the education world.”

To find out more about this year’s awards categories and how to enter, go to https://businessdisabilityforum.org.uk/our-services/disability-smart-awards/.

All entries must be received by 20 September 2019. Winners will be announced at the Disability Smart Awards Ceremony on 23 October 2019.