The Diversity of Disability

It is widely recognized that companies that embrace diversity and inclusion have a competitive advantage when recruiting employees and winning the loyalty of customers, particularly the younger generation that increasingly expects companies to demonstrate good corporate citizenship.  When early diversity efforts focused primarily on gender, race and ethnicity, current approaches include age, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status and disability.  In 2011, Forbes Insights published survey findings of large national and multi-national companies in which more than 80% of senior executives described diversity efforts that included gender; more than 70% included ethnicity, age, and race; and 52% included disability, which was most often identified as the area where improvements were needed.