The 2024 Disability Equality Index ® Reveals Strong Growth in Leadership and Accessibility but Boardroom Inclusion Lags
15 Julio 2024 - 8:02AM
Business Wire
Benchmarking tool expands internationally ahead
of forthcoming European reporting mandates, giving rise to
disability inclusion as a sustainability issue
45% of respondents are publishing diversity
reports that include disability data, up from 24% a year ago
Disability:IN, the global nonprofit organization driving
disability inclusion and equality in business, today unveiled the
2024 Disability Equality Index® report at the Disability:IN
Global Conference & Expo, revealing higher year-over-year
adoption rates for nearly all reported practices around disability
inclusion while also showing the need for more progress in areas
such as diversity reporting, supplier diversity spending and
boardroom inclusion.
A total of 542 U.S. companies participated this year, a growth
rate of 7x since the index launched 10 years ago in partnership
with AAPD. Among the U.S. companies that have taken the Disability
Equality Index, where year-over-year data is currently available,
this year’s report shows:
- 45% are publishing diversity reports that include disability
data, up from 24% in 2023.
- 71% have a requirement to ensure digital products are
accessible and usable by individuals with disabilities, up from 64%
in 2023.
- 24% have company-wide disability-focused goals in place for
supplier diversity and inclusion.
- 11% of companies report having an openly disabled director on
their corporate board; however, just 3% of companies voluntarily
report on disability at the board level.
- 8% of companies now include disability in their corporate
governance charters that outline the nomination of new
directors.
Global pathways to inclusion
For the first time ever, this year Disability:IN opened the
benchmarking tool to companies in seven new markets, adding Brazil,
Canada, Germany, India, Japan, the Philippines, and the United
Kingdom to the scored benchmarks, bringing the global number of
submissions to 753.
Though the multimarket sample sizes were small in the inaugural
year, the 2024 report shows:
- 91% of Brazil respondents (out of 34 companies) reported
offering short-term disability benefits to both full and part-time
employees.
- 82% of Canada respondents (out of 34 companies) reported having
employment and retention programs focused on or inclusive of people
with disabilities.
- 64% of U.K. respondents (out of 56 companies) reported having a
centralized fund or budget margin for accommodations.
“Expanding the Disability Equality Index internationally
reflects the tremendous demand for enhanced disability inclusion
and reporting in multinational markets. We’re giving companies that
operate outside of the U.S. a culturally competent tool to fully
measure their disability inclusion efforts,” said Jill Houghton,
president and CEO, Disability:IN. “The Disability Equality Index
now empowers businesses around the world to drive positive change,
but we still have more work to do to encourage companies to tap
into the potential of the global disability community as consumers,
employees and suppliers.”
The internationalization of the Disability Equality Index also
coincides with the first major legislative mandate to integrate
disability into business accountability standards for assessing
businesses’ environmental and social impact. The European Union’s
adoption of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive is the
first modernization of mandatory sustainability reporting standards
to include disability.
In the coming years, the Disability Equality Index will seek to
further evolve the benchmark, questions, scoring, methodology and
metrics for more broad-based universal use globally. The index will
also be poised to help multinational companies expedite the
reporting process in their requirements to substantiate their
inclusion efforts for all stakeholders.
“We’re excited to mark a decade of progress and a new chapter in
disability inclusion for the Disability Equality Index. Disability
inclusion is now formally recognized as a global sustainability
issue, and as companies begin to substantiate their inclusion
efforts for all stakeholders, the Disability Equality Index is a
proven tool for companies to measure their efforts and generate
sustainable long-term performance,” said Ted Kennedy, Jr., co-chair
of the Disability Equality Index and immediate past chair of
AAPD.
Actionable insights for companies
Refreshed research from Accenture that uses data from the
Disability Equality Index shows that U.S. companies leading on
disability inclusion over a five-year period realized marked
business gains over other participants, achieving 1.6 times more
revenue, 2.6 times more net income, and 2 times more economic
profit.
Based on this year’s findings, Disability:IN has identified five
measurable actions that companies and individuals can take to
continue to work towards sustainable and inclusive performance:
- Encourage employee self-identification: Implement a
confidential and voluntary process for employees to self-identify
as individuals with disabilities, enabling accurate tracking and
improved workforce support. This year, 5% is the median
self-identification rate of new hires at companies who are now
affirming their disability status during onboarding, according to
the report.
- Leverage disability-focused ERGs: Utilize the
cross-functional expertise and lived experiences of ERG members to
gain valuable insights and enhance inclusion strategies.
- Conduct accessibility audits: Audit for compliance under
the World Wide Web Consortium’s Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines 2.2 AA to help ensure that digital content is accessible
to all users.
- Modernize corporate governance: Revise charters to
include prospective directors with disabilities in the definition
of board diversity as most already do with gender, race and
ethnicity.
- Accelerate spending with Disability-Owned Business
Enterprises®: Include disability in supplier
diversity/inclusive procurement efforts.
About the Disability Equality Index
The Disability Equality Index covers Culture & Leadership,
Enterprise-Wide Access, Employment Practices, Community Engagement,
Supplier Diversity and Responsible Procurement (unweighted). Each
company participating in the index receives a score, on a scale of
zero (0) to 100, with those earning 80 and above recognized as a
“Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion.” The Disability
Equality Index was created in 2015 with the help of AAPD.
To view the Disability Equality Index online, please visit
https://disabilityin.org/2024-dei-report/
Registration for the 2025 Disability Equality Index opens in
Fall 2024 at disabilityin.org
About Disability:IN
Disability:IN is a global organization driving disability
inclusion and equality in business. More than 550 corporations
partner with Disability:IN to create long-term business and social
impact through the world’s most comprehensive disability inclusion
benchmarking and reporting tool, the Disability Equality Index;
best-in-class conferences and programs; expert counsel and
engagement; and public policy leadership. To learn more about
Disability:IN’s key initiatives including Boards Are IN, Investors
Are IN, and CEOs Are IN, visit www.disabilityin.org
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Suzanne Robitaille Archie Group suzanne@archiegroup.com