Turning point for global disability agenda

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The global disability agenda is at a ‘turning point’, founder of #Valuable, Dr Caroline Casey, announced at Business Disability Forum’s annual Scottish Conference, in Edinburgh. The event, which took place on 11th December, was attended by 150 business leaders, politicians, and disability experts.

Speaking alongside Business Disability Forum Chief Executive Diane Lightfoot, Dr. Casey pointed to public commitments by influential global leaders, such as former CEO of Unilever, Paul Polman, to put disability on the agenda of company boards.

Casey was joined in Edinburgh by Jamie Hepburn MSP, Minister for Business, Fair Work and Skills for the Scottish Government, who launched a new strategy to halve the disability employment gap in Scotland over the next 20 years.

Experts and professionals from the Royal Bank of Scotland, Network Rail, and the University of Edinburgh, also spoke at the event, and discussed how disability, which is often non-visible, affects them.Diane Lightfoot, Chief Executive Officer at Business Disability Forum, said: “As Caroline Casey so eloquently put it at the close of our event, we are on the cusp of a sea change. Disability is finally moving onto the radar, whether that’s onscreen, on the political stage, the boardroom or in every day conversations about our identities. “There is still a long way to go, but throughout the day there was certainly the feeling that the disability agenda is really starting to gain traction, accelerate and to move into the spotlight it both needs and deserves.”

Business Disability Forum is an expert partner of the Valuable500 and is working with global business leaders to bring meaningful, top-down, change which recognises the value of 1.3 billion disabled in the world. You can find out more at https://businessdisabilityforum.org.uk/