24 May 2006

Realising potential – Disability Confidence builds better business

A fresh insight into how managing disability as a business priority benefits both business and the wider community has been published by the Employers' Forum on Disability.

‘Realising potential – Disability Confidence builds better business’, produced with the support of InterContinental Hotels, illustrates how business is changing its approach to disability.

Susan Scott-Parker, chief executive of the Forum, says:

“It is significant that 82 per cent of customers with disabilities surveyed recently have taken their business to a more disability confident competitor in the last year.

“An ageing workforce, combined with the global trend towards disabled people demanding better treatment as customers and employees, means disabled people are better placed than ever to demand fairer treatment from business.

“Organisations which respond to change will find it easier to welcome disabled customers, remove themselves from the legal risk zone of the Disability Discrimination Act and reduce the impact of the ‘walk-away £’”

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Notes

The Employers' Forum on Disability is an employers' organisation with over 380 members, who employ over 20 per cent of the UK workforce.
For fifteen years, the Forum has been making it easier for business to employ disabled people and serve disabled customers.
‘Realising potential’ by Rhiannon Suter, Susan Scott-Parker and Simon Zadek was produced with the support of InterContinental Hotels. It contains quotes from Justin King (Group Chief Executive, Sainsbury's), John Varley (Group Chief Executive, Barclays plc and President, Employers' Forum on Disability) and William H Gates (Chairman, Microsoft Corporation).
The website, www.realising-potential.org, is being designed with the support of Lehman Brothers and will be launched in July 2006.
Employers' Forum on Disability chief executive Susan Scott-Parker is available for interview.
Disabled business leaders are available for interview.
A jpeg of the front cover of ‘Realising potential’ is available on request.
For a copy of ‘Realising potential’, by post or pdf, contact Issy Rule in the Forum press office on 020 7403 3020 or issy.rule@employers-forum.co.uk

Some statistics about disability in the UK

Two per cent of people of working age become disabled each year
33 per cent of workers aged 50-64 are disabled
The 50-plus generation will grow by more than 6 million in the next 25 years
10 million people in the UK have a disability
Between 2000 and 2010 there will be 20 per cent more workers aged 55 and over ñ 33 per cent of this group are disabled
Three out of ten of disabled adults of working age live in poverty
If the one million disabled people now supported by IB who say they want to work were helped to find work over the next decade Britain would save £7bn in benefits

For further information, please contact the Press Office

Employers' Forum on Disability
Telephone: 020 7089 3020
Mobile: 07754 522 521
Email: issy.rule@employers-forum.co.uk