Our Global Conference, kindly sponsored by HSBC, was held online on Tuesday 7 July 2026.

Wherever in the world you are operating, harnessing the talent of disabled employees and reaching disabled customers is good for business. To make the most of these opportunities, businesses are striving to achieve change in systems, processes and culture across their global operations. Delivering disability-inclusive changes on a global scale can be a challenge, particularly if this needs to happen at pace, but by taking the right steps businesses can succeed.

Business Disability Forum (BDF)’s Global Conference 2026, kindly sponsored by HSBC, explored how to achieve meaningful and practical change and what that means for leaders and practitioners. We heard from leading voices in disability inclusion, including a keynote from DEI Strategist, Speaker and Author, Lyn Lee.

Recordings of all the conference sessions are available to Members and Partners below. Please log in to access the recordings.

Sessions

Welcome

Diane Lightfoot (Business Disability Forum) and Carolanne Minashi (HSBC UK) opened the conference, setting the scene for the day ahead and introducing the key themes that were explored throughout the day.

Speakers

• Diane Lightfoot, CEO, Business Disability Forum.
• Carolanne Minashi, Global Head of Inclusion, HSBC.

Keynote: Tiny Rice Grains, the power of every gesture in furthering a disability-inclusive culture

For this year’s keynote, our CEO Diane Lightfoot was joined by Lyn Lee, DEI strategist and author of ‘Tiny Rice Grains’, a Straits Times non-fiction bestseller. Diane and Lyn talked about why organisations struggle to implement and embed DEI in the workplace, and how small actions can help deliver meaningful change.

Speakers

• Lyn Lee, DEI Strategist, Speaker and Author, Tiny Rice Grains Consulting (Singapore).
• Diane Lightfoot, CEO, Business Disability Forum (Interviewer).

Knowing where you’re starting from: understanding inclusion on a global scale

It’s one thing to aspire to be more inclusive of disabled people, but when you’re working across a multinational organisation, where do you begin? Developing a strategy that spans multiple markets, each with its own legal frameworks and cultural contexts, can quickly become complex.

In this session, experts from HSBC in discussion with BDF’s Adrian Ward, explored how global organisations can evaluate their current situation for disability inclusion. They reflected on the challenges they encountered during their most recent global assessment, and how they navigated these across diverse cultural contexts.

Chair

• Adrian Ward, Operations Director, Business Disability Forum.

Speakers

• Joanne Austin, Global Inclusion Delivery Support Manager, HSBC (UK).
• Sweety Kandekar, Senior Vice President and People & Change Consultant, HSBC (India).

How organisational change is happening around the world

A great deal of progress has been made on disability inclusion in recent years but there remains more work to do both in the UK and globally.

This panel brought together Business Disability Forum with some of our peer organisations from around the world to consider how disability inclusive change is happening in our various countries, and what more we can do to support businesses in making that change.

Chair

• Diane Lightfoot, CEO, Business Disability Forum

Speakers

• Murteza Khan, CEO, Bangladesh Business and Disability Network (Bangladesh).
• Agata Robińska, President & Founder, YES to Disability Foundation (Poland).
• Max Simpson, CEO, Thailand Business & Disability Network / Steps (Thailand).

Stories of change for disability inclusion

In this session made up of presentations and a Q&A, we heard stories from organisations which have worked to implement disability inclusive change across their global operations, whether that be intended to benefit their disabled employees and customers.
Our speakers shared how they sought to overcome the challenges of enacting change and how that change is making a positive impact for their business.

Co-Chairs

• Daniel Cadey, Senior Disability Business Partner, Business Disability Forum.
• Brooke Mauro, Senior Disability Business Partner, Business Disability Forum.

Speakers

• Anahi Lafon, Global Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Impact Director, L’Oréal (France).
• Julie Thomas, Director – Inclusion, Diversity & Equity, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (UK).

Final thoughts

Diane Lightfoot (Business Disability Forum) reflected on the key themes and insights from the day and looked ahead to the opportunities for continued progress.

Speakers

• Diane Lightfoot, CEO, Business Disability Forum.

Media Links

• Fair Play Talks 8 July 2026: Business Disability Forum Unites Global Leaders to Drive Disability Inclusion Across Global Organisations – Fair Play Talks Business Disability Forum Unites Global Leaders to Drive Disability Inclusion Across Global Organisations
• HR Grapevine 9 July 2026: How employers can keep progressing on disability inclusion in uncertain times | HR Management | HR Grapevine | News

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