 My name is Caroline Casey. I am going to describe myself because if there's anybody like me visually impaired you could not miss the description of the Flamingo wallpaper that I am sitting in front of, very unweft. I have blonde hair, very unusual black framed glasses and looked like somebody from the Incredibles. I am going to ask each of our fabulous panelists similarly to introduce themselves and the current role to which they are engaged with and also audio described so we can get a sense of who everybody is. But to briefly open I need to explain that I am the founder of the valuable 500. The valuable 500 was established because of a startling, or many startling stats, but 90% of the companies in the world claim they are passionate and committed to inclusion and yet only 4% consider disability. The valuable 500 was launched 19 months ago on the main stage of the World Economic Forum and it is the first and only global CEO community committed to transforming disability inclusion through business leadership and opportunity. It is about leadership accountability. We are right in the middle of a time of reset. This incredible opportunity for change. This new era, this potential decade of disruption if we use this time well. This is the opportunity for a new agenda for disability inclusion. A new agenda that gets rid of the corrosive siloed approach to corporate diversity and inclusion which has traditionally left disability on the sidelines. It is a new agenda which moves from inspiration and charity and discretional interest to the value of the community of 1.3 billion people in the world who have a disability and the value, the enormous untouched value we have to offer through growth insight innovation as customers, suppliers and talent. And this new agenda needs new agents. And this conversation today I could not be delighted to share with these four game changing agents. So I am going to call upon the first of these and in my sideline is K.R. Luke. Will you explain to us your role and who you are? Hi everyone. It is wonderful to be here. Good morning. I am on the west coast in California. My name is K.R. Luke. My pronouns are she and her. I am the head of brand accessibility at Google. And my role is to really bring a disability lens into our products, into the marketing content that we create and especially the stories that we tell so disabled people can see themselves in the work that we do and see themselves represented authentically in the world. And to describe myself I have short blonde hair. Almost as blonde as Caroline. I am wearing a black shirt and I have a silver necklace on and some silver earrings that I always wear. And I am super happy to be here. Thank you, K.R. Sam, Sam Lateef, let us know what you are up to at the moment and what trouble you are causing. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everyone. This is Sam Lateef. I am company accessibility leader at Proctor and Gamble. And my job is amazing. It is making our company, our products and packaging, our advertising, our partnerships, our suppliers, all accessible and disability confident so that we can serve the 1.3 or 1.85 billion people now in the world with a disability in a very delightful way. And I am wearing a grey head scarf and I have big brown eyes, apparently. And yeah, and that is me. I am not wearing any earrings or jewelry today because I have just worked out. I have only got my apple watch on. Oh, you are showing off now. Sinead Burke, where are you and what trouble are you causing? Hello, everybody. My name is Sinead. My pronouns are she and her. Due to the joys of working from home, I am in my brother's bedroom and I am trying as much as possible to avoid showing you his various photographs and eye chronography that represent his life. I have brown hair that was once above but thanks to COVID-19 is almost shoulder length and I have brown eyes. I am wearing a navy dress that is floral and I have no jewelry on today either. That is interesting. And June, have you joined us? Yes, June Serpang. Hello. Caroline and hi, everyone. My pronouns are she and her. I am a black woman. To further describe, I am a dark-skinned black woman. I have black hair and brown eyes and wearing gold earrings. And like Sinead, I am also at home but I am not in my brother's bedroom. Good to know. Now, listen, June, we are going to start with you because when we were speaking last week, you said this quote that really bothered me. You said excluding people with disabilities is not something people are ashamed of. And I might, okay, unpick this one and particularly in your role within the BBC, what is this about and how can we change that? Yes, of course. Well, first of all, Caroline, thank you so much for bringing us all together to have this important conversation. Yeah, I mean, it was horrible to say it but it's actually true, isn't it, if we're honest? If you look at all of the key underrepresented groups, there's a certain element of guilt and shame around discrimination where those groups are concerned, particularly obviously where race is concerned and rightly so, where gender is concerned, our LGBTQ plus brothers and sisters. There is a certain level of shame when we exclude those people. It's not something, even though it happens and we know how unfair our world is still, we know we shouldn't be doing it. Where disability is concerned? And I don't often quote George W. Bush, but I will hear. He spoke about the soft bigotry of low expectations and he spoke about it in relation to African American kids in inner city schools, but I think it's actually even more applicable where disability is concerned. We expect so little of our disabled community. We speak to grown people, grown adults as if they were children. And as a result of it, it's almost as if we think we're doing them a favor by infantilizing them in this way. And I think that's in part why there isn't the shame. And actually if you look at it, it's so deep rooted, Caroline, when somebody falls pregnant, what's the thing that everybody says, even if you say what gender do you want? It's always as long as it's a healthy child. And what that means is as long as the child is not disabled. So from the beginning of life, we're making it as if this is perhaps one of the worst things you can be. And so I think we really need to just really look at it and accept the sort of bigotry that those that are non-disabled in our community and in our societies all have. We all have it because it's so ingrained. And then we can start honestly tackling this stuff. KR, you've talked about, I mean, what you've heard June speaking about the how people may view disability, but you've speak to that disability has so many dimensions to it. And you're using the platform within Google to change that representation. Can you tell us a little bit about that? How are you going about that? What are some of the early wins? Can we say wins or are areas of improvement? And what are the barriers for this? Yeah, absolutely. And June has a really good point and there are so many different dimensions to who we are. Myself, I identify as a gay woman with severe hearing loss. So I'm at like a woman one day and disabled the next day and gay the next day. I am all those things all the time. And so at Google, my role is to really show that right is to show all the dimensions of who disabled people are in the work that we do and also include everyone in that experience. And one example I can I can say we struggle to do on that is our racial equity work that we dig into June. We launched our first racial equity site in our racial equity video around things that are being searched for in all time high. And in that video, we made sure that we talked about the intersections of race, of gender, of LGBTQ and of disability. We made the experience the most inclusive experience we've ever done in some of our biggest campaign videos to make sure that anyone with any disability could experience that. And that was a big first step, but we have many steps to go. This is something that Google is committed to doing and honestly, it's been new, right? They've never had a disability lens or disability representation in the marketing side where they can bring that voice, bring the community to the table to help make sure that we are highlighting important issues like ableism being searched setting all time high. We actually did a campaign around that for ADA 30. So we want to start having these conversations, but also we want to also start showing what disability look like. And it's not just, you know, an older white person in a wheelchair, which is typically the standard advertisement that you see. We want to show all the beautiful ways that disability is represented. And we want to start breaking down those barriers. We want to start having people see the beauty of who we are and what we represent and what we stand for. We want to be recognized as equal members of society. That's really important to us. And that's really important to the community too, right? We want to be able to be free to be who we are. And that's the goal. And I think that moves to free to be who we are. We need to see ourselves in advertising and having products and services available. Sam, you know, you are looking at trying to make Proctor and Gamble the most inclusive to all your consumers. Do you want to explain a little bit about some of the initiatives that you've been doing or some of the changes that you're seeing? Yeah, sure. So basically, trying to change the mindset that disabled people have an equal right to access all of our products and services. And so, you know, in order to do that, we've had to do three things. Like, first of all, we've had a culture shift at P&G, which has prompted a cascade of new thinking and initiatives, which makes this kind of thinking a reality. So I can touch on three. First, like we're becoming more disability confident in our culture. Second, we've started a tremendous, you know, beginning and making our products and our packaging more inclusive and accessible, easy to open, easy to use. And third, our advertising. So better reflecting and also better serving the people watching our advertising. And I think the issue of visibility and I mean, Sinead, you probably can speak to this very much at the moment. It is not just enough for us to have visible real models, right? This is why this conversation is so important because everybody here is working within a business or an industry. You're talking from moving from something from visibility to capability, and from the individual to the collective. And you are working very closely to disrupt the fashion industry. But that's not where you're starting. But just explain to us what you've seen happen in your extraordinary journey in the last two years, two to three years particularly. Thank you very much. I'm so honored to be on this panel, the level of expertise and insight and disruption is just so incredible to see. I am a person who has benefited from great visibility within an industry of fashion. I understood that fashion profited from a notion of exclusivity. And yet I had the grandiose ambition at 15 that I wanted to make it inclusive and still have a business model by which it was profitable. Turns out it's possible. From being on the front cover of Vogue and being the first little person to do so and attending the Met Gala garnered great currency for me and the industry. For me personally, the best moments within those initiatives were not being present at the time. But in the responses that I received from families and individuals, mostly young disabled people who for the first time saw themselves reflected within popular culture and authenticated by an institution like Vogue. What made that matter was that fashion was now ticked. That box was done. Would they be a Michelin star chef? Would they be an astronaut? But how do we make sure that success is not just for the exception, but success is the rule? How do we ensure that the culture is changing? How do we ensure that visibility is not just an immediate solution in order to garner press or marketing? How are we changing the culture? How are we providing new employment opportunities? How are we working explicitly and specifically with disabled people? We cannot design the future for disability if we do not have disabled advocates and disabled experts at the heart of shaping the solutions. To quote Audre Lorde, the master's tools will not dismantle the master's house. We need disabled people at the heart of all progress moving forward because otherwise we're just re-inculcating the ableist biases that exist moving forward. We are redefining the paternalistic culture, which June spoke about, where we are talking to disabled people about what they need instead of looking through a lens of accessibility to provide innovation, creativity, opportunity, and profitability in a way in which creates, as Kayora said, a safe space for people to be themselves at work, at home, and in social opportunities. So one of the, thank you, all of you. By the way, if you want to interrupt each other, I won't see you as you know, so just use your voice with some level of politeness. But one of the things everybody challenges us on when we speak about disability is like, let's get granular. Tell me some ideas, give us some best practice, give us some learnings that are working. How do we get this from niche to normal? So are there one or two examples? Regardless of your own organizations or your own industries, you can see that these are examples of the leadership that you want to support and see scales. Are there some things that you're going this we need more of? I'm going to come to you, Sam, because when we were speaking, we have all referred to the issue of disclosure. What are you doing in PNG or are you able to say that? Because I think this is something we all feel quite, is this something we feel very strong about, about identity and disclosure? Yeah, I mean, I think going back to what June said, there's, related to that, it's a fact that 65% of people say that they avoid people with disabilities because they make them feel uncomfortable. So, and this is true in my experience as well, when people first meet me, I can sense their discomfort. But I also know that after they've spent some time with me, that their level of discomfort goes down and they start understanding what the problems are when it comes to disability and accessibility. And they actually want to start solving those problems. And it's very difficult for if that's more than two thirds of the population is uncomfortable with disability, it's hard for individuals, even if companies are asking people to disclose if they have a disability voluntarily, people might still feel uncomfortable. So, I think it's first of all really important to change the culture to really overcome these conscious or unconscious biases that people have towards disability in the way you know, we need to do that from like from birth, all the way through school, universities, workplaces, we need to get to know people with disabilities and like get comfortable around them, understand that they're just human beings like everyone else. And that will hopefully open people's hearts and minds and start making changes that are really needed in business and in society. And June, to that point, listen, you're a BBC, how can we get to change these hearts and minds? The talent behind the camera, the talent in front of the camera as a lived experience disability, what are you guys doing about it? We're doing a lot Caroline and that's a lot that I'm very proud of. Yesterday, in fact, our Director General announced our 50-50 project, which has been around gender on-screen representation in terms of contributors, that's now being rolled out for BAME and disability. So, we now have clear targets in terms of the disability representation from a contributor perspective because often when you're looking at experts back to what both Sam and Sinead NKR, all of you were saying, about changing how those with disabilities or those in our society that are non-abled, bodied as it were, are being treated, what we have to do is change the overall perception, which means also showing them in the positions of leadership as experts. So, when you're talking about an issue around science, why does it only have to be non-disabled people that are contributors or only white men? These are the things that we're challenging. So, you're going to see a lot of representation on that front. Also, as you know, Inclusion Month is taking place throughout November at the BBC and disability is our core focus. So, we have a season of programming that I'm very excited about. Matt Fraser's done some fantastic stuff for us, as has Ruth Maidley and many other fantastic creatives. So, you're going to see some really great content and the same with our radio programming as well. And then the longing, and that's kind of the first steps, isn't it, really? That's kind of just step one. And then it's the long-term stuff, which is, who's writing a show? And are we only expecting those in our society with disabilities to only write storylines that are about those? No, let's move beyond that. Who's writing a show? Who's directing a show? Who is actually commissioning a show? So, these are the things that we are working on, but those things take longer. But at least in terms of representation, we can deal with that pretty quickly. So, now I, well, Sinead, you and I know each other anyway, but now, Sam, and obviously Caroline, I adore you. But now, Kaya and Sam, I'm going to be harassing you all as well in terms of coming on our shows as contributors. So, Kaya, are you, I've been wondering about you are, have you found yourself in the kind of only bracket? Do you know what I mean within the organizations that you've been in before at Google? Do you see more people now coming out of every closet that there is advocating? Because I say I came out of the disability closet. Are you seeing that happening more? People are more comfortable to identify and disclose. How are you seeing that change? Yeah, I would definitely say COVID has absolutely helped that actually. People have been coming out more and identifying with disability, having conversations with it, understanding that disability isn't like, you know, physical or just a visible disability. And what's been interesting at Google and in the industry on the tech side at least that I've seen is more people with disability being put in positions of leadership, being put in positions of decision making to make actual changes to help guide the organizations and to how they can be more inclusive of people with disabilities. And even in my own organization, I've been very grateful to have leadership that's given me a platform and a voice to be able to talk about the things I want to see change, how we can be better about the work that we create, how we can bring a platform to the people that are created and animated in this space. Disabled people have done amazing things in technology and nobody knows about those stories and I want to tell those stories. And to June point, getting disabled creators behind the camera, writing the storyline, producing the content, being the director, that needs to happen as well because who better to tell our stories than our community themselves, right? And so for me, that's also important because I want to change the unemployment rate. The unemployment rate for people with disabilities is insane in the U.S. and it's insane around the world. And there's a huge pipeline of talent that we can really help bring to the table and work from home is actually shown that that is possible. You can be productive working from home. I'm actually more productive working from home. And so it creates a lot of open mindedness now to start allowing people to speak up, say what they need, and to look at other areas of the business, not just in tech. Don't just look at product development. Don't just look at engineering. Look at the whole creative side from the time you talk about the idea all the way through the story you're going to tell to the world. The disabled community needs to be involved in that entire process and that's my goal. Which is a lovely segue to Sinead because Sinead has many projects and initiatives up her sleeve. Just as we come to the close of these last ones and everybody get ready for your very quick fire last question. Sinead, you've been doing a lot in developing your engagement with business leadership. Do you want to talk through some of them that go beyond what you're best known for around fashion? Absolutely. I have a company called Chilting the Lens. It is a consultancy and communications-based company to really reshape fashion systems, product and education around designing through a lens of accessibility. So, Kair, you've brought up such an incredible and important point in relation to thinking about innovation through a lens of disability that it's not just within engineering. It's not just within product development. Within a fashion system there has been huge demand for adaptive clothing which is designing clothes for people with disabilities for such a long time. My argument is not to do it. At least not in the lens in which we're currently thinking it through. If we go back a couple of decades, the plus size community for a long time asked for fashion to respect them and to provide clothes for them. Fashion's response was to do it but not really to include those who describe themselves as plus size as fat. So, what was provided was a segment of the market that was limited in aesthetic, in product offering and in business opportunity. If there are women or those who choose to wear dresses on this call, you will be very familiar with having at least once in your life having had to sleep in a dress. And that is because the zip is at the back. That is how you know it was designed by a man who wasn't wearing it. What disabled people need is to remove the dress from the back and instead to use velcro or magnets as a ceiling. What disabled people need is three pillars changed within fashion. Fixture, so again, not zips. Function and texture in terms of if you are autistic or if you have various different sensitivities, you need different types of fabric. Again, that benefits everybody. And lastly, alterations. I'm a little person, which means I need the sleeves and the trousers and various other items of mine altered. Alterations is a medical word. Let's translate that into a fashion lexicon. Customization. These are all skills that the fashion industry are very, very familiar with. So, how do we adapt them, not just for a disabled market, but use the learnings from the disabled experience to innovate the entire business model? How else then do we market the story? How else then do we include the accountants for legal the finance and the operations? I want to create a new system within an archaic one where disability innovation and inclusivity is at its heart and is intersectional from the very beginning. You can, you get 30 seconds to say what she said and universal design, precisely that and everybody benefits. We've seen it with every other form of universal design. Everyone benefits in the end. So, here, here, Shanae. Well, I think this is the thing that all four of you are complete committed advocates around human-centered design, which is everything about this reset is the human is at the center, the full human. Now, I'm getting waves on my phone. You get each of you. We have all of the CEOs of all the leaders in all the world, and you get a declaration of disruption, which we want to use to take through to our outcome session. You have each of you 45 seconds or whatever, but not beyond. I will take this and this is what you want to see in this reset with no more excuses. So, June, you're on. Okay, 45 seconds. 45 seconds. I would say value and values. So, we need to be very clear of what our values are. And I think once we are clear of our values and make sure that inclusion or humanity, as you say, Caroline, is at the center of that, then who we value changes. And at the moment, there are so many people in society that we don't value, and they know we don't value them. And therefore, we are getting just a fraction of what it is that they have to contribute to this world. So, I think if we change our values, it will change who we value and as a result, everybody benefits. Nice. KR, you're on. So hard to answer. I know, I mean, I mean, but come on. No, I think if anything, we need to recognize, like I said earlier, the contributions that disability has done given to the world and innovation and show that when you do include people with disabilities, it is good for everyone. It's good business. It's inclusive. It shows you a whole nother way of how people don't typically have to adapt to this world and we do. And so it benefits everyone because everyone at some point in their lifetime will be disabled. They will be. So why not build a world that includes us because it will benefit you in the end. It will benefit everyone. So it's really important that people need to recognize that disability touches all of us at some point in our lifetime. You're absolutely right. Future-proofing the future of everyone. Sam. So I might say that I want to give these leaders something practical that they can take away and implement. And one of the things that's very dear to my heart is the lovely content that June and KR are talking about creating and developing by people with disabilities. My dream is that people with disabilities can actually watch that content and especially if they're blind through a service called audio description. And it's quite sad that in the world today that most of the content around the world collectively is not audio described, which means that blind people cannot see that content with just a very little minor investment of less than a couple of hundred pounds. Companies can make their content audio described and it makes the world of difference to the 285 blind people or million blind people around the world. So definitely go do audio description and especially in countries where it doesn't even exist and blind people have never even experienced it. Brilliant. Thank you, Sam. Sinead, you've got to roll us out because we're going to go from you into the members conversation. So give us the drum roll. I want you to ask yourself three questions. Who is not in the room? Whether that's your boardroom, design, studio, commissioning, office? Who is not there? Number two, is your room accessible, be it digital or a physical space? Is your office in an historic and architecturally protected building that cannot be made accessible? Is your Zoom or Microsoft Teams call closed captioned? Do you have sign language interpreters and are you alerting the accessibility accommodations that you are providing in the outset and in the invitation of the meeting? And the third one, do you have accessible pathways by which you can change the trajectory of your company, your culture, and the impact that you can have on community and the world as a whole forever more? Guys, we are the best panel. Now stay here, everybody. Can I just say, can we all give a wave for this one? Thank you.