Country for PR: United Kingdom
Contributor: PR Newswire Europe
Friday, September 04 2020 - 01:01
AsiaNet
The Valuable 500: Leading CEO's make a stand for disability inclusion with open letter during postponed 2020 Paralympic games
LONDON, September 4, 2020 /PRNewswire-AsiaNet/ --

- The letter, titled "Disability inclusion does not just come around every four 
years for business leaders" highlights the disability inequality crisis in 
business ahead of what would have been the closing ceremony of the 2020 
Paralympics 

Leading CEO's, from some of the world's largest businesses, have signed an open 
letter calling for disability inclusion to be addressed more than once every 
four years.

The Paralympics bring great hope and visibility to the 1.3 billion people 
living with some form of disability globally – 15% of the world's population. 
The games also provide businesses a valuable opportunity to proudly display a 
strong message of support to people with disabilities, elite athletes or not, 
through sponsorships and partnerships. 

After the last medal is awarded, people with disabilities are still being 
excluded. While 90% of companies claim to prioritise diversity, only 4% focus 
on making offerings that are disability-inclusive. Recent findings show only 8% 
of companies feature people with disabilities in their marketing and 
advertising collateral on a regular basis.

The business leaders are calling for this to change and for other CEOs to stand 
together as one and pledge to commit to disability inclusion, by joining The 
Valuable 500.

It is not enough for the business community to only make a visible display of 
solidarity and representation when disability inclusion is trending 
internationally due to the Paralympics. Businesses need to commit to disability 
inclusion when the world stops watching, all year round, every year. 

Business leaders who have signed this letter include;

Caroline Casey, founder of The Valuable 500 
Yuji Hirako, President and CEO, Member of the Board, ANA 
Elie Girard, CEO, Atos 
Michael Corbat, CEO, Citi 
Yoshinari Kitajima, President, Dai Nippon Printing (DNP)  
Keiichi Yoshii, President, CEO and COO, Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd. 
Yuji Akasaka, Representative Director, Executive President, Japan Airlines Co., 
Ltd. 
Akimasa Yoneda, President, KNT-CT Holdings Co., Ltd. 
Takashi Niino, President and CEO, NEC Corporation   
Jun Sawada, President and CEO, NTT  
Noriaki Kiyota, President, Representative Director, TOTO LTD.
All businesses signing the letter are official partners of the Tokyo 
Paralympics, and members of the global disability inclusion movement The 
Valuable 500 - which is working to get 500 of the world's largest businesses to 
commit to placing disability inclusion on their business leadership agendas.

Source: The Valuable 500
Translations

Japanese