Global Disability Inclusion Award: Unilever

WINNER: Unilever

Sponsored by:

About Unilever 

Unilever is a multinational consumer packaged goods company that operates in 190 countries. It owns a portfolio of 400 brands across home care, beauty and wellbeing, food and more. 

Issue

Because of its size and global reach, Unilever is faced with the challenge of delivering accessibility and inclusion at scale for its 127,000 employees and the estimated 3.4 billion people using its products every day. Its innovations must be both scalable and sustainable. 

What they did

In 2025, Unilever’s Global Accessibility Centre of Excellence (CoE) embedded accessibility into products, workplaces and culture at global scale.  

It delivered innovations such as:

Accessible QR codes

The continued scale-up of accessible QR codes, now live on over 5.2 billion product packs across 47 brands, enables blind and low-vision consumers to independently access trusted product information. Now with integrated AI capabilities, the codes offer more adaptive experiences. 

Inclusive office navigation solution

The CoE introduced QR code-based technology for wayfinding in Unilever workspaces. This inclusive navigation solution costs up to 10 times less than traditional systems, which radically improves scalability. 

New support model for disabled colleagues

Unilever disabled colleagues can now access assistive tools more quickly thanks to a global support model with a guaranteed 15-minute response time. The CoE also embedded assistive technology into product taxonomy and launched a centralised software catalogue. 

AI-powered accessibility guidance tool

Unilever’s internal AI guidance tool, Una, democratises inclusion by providing on-demand accessibility advice to any employee. 

Cultural focus on accessibility

Accessibility was positioned as a core organisational skill. Unilever hosted its first Global Accessibility Event, attended by 482 colleagues and external partners. A simplified Accessibility Hub was launched, and accessibility training was delivered to build inclusive design skills across the organisation. 

Throughout these changes, the feedback from employees with lived experience directly informed the development of assistive technology solutions, internal support models and training programmes. Inclusion was considered across a broad spectrum of needs, including visual, cognitive, physical and neurodivergent experiences.  

Impact

Employees report increased independence, reduced reliance on informal workarounds and faster task completion. Early adoption of accessible productivity tools, including AI-enabled support, has improved confidence and efficiency, particularly for colleagues with visual, cognitive and neurodivergent accessibility needs. 

For disabled consumers, Unilever’s Accessible QR code programme represents one of the largest accessibility interventions of its kind.

If you require this content in a different format, contact [email protected].