Membership benefits

Business Disability Forum Membership

Joining us highlights your organisation’s commitment to becoming a disability-smart business and gives you access to advice and support on disability inclusion to remove barriers for disabled employees and consumers. You’ll also become part of a community of businesses of all sizes, thought leaders and disabled people: all with a desire to improve the life experiences of disabled people. 

We offer two levels of membership, Member and Partner. Whichever you choose, your organisation will receive access to expert advice and support, knowledge, resources and opportunities to share best practice with others. 

Business Disability Forum’s Disability Smart Awards celebrate organisations that support disability inclusion. Entries for 2025 open in December.

Key membership benefits

The following membership benefits are available to Members and Partners. 

• Access to expert support via a dedicated Business Partner (relationship manager) to help you make the most of your membership.  
• Access to our in-depth, sophisticated and tailored Advice Service, available by phone and email.   
• Access to a growing range of Networks and Taskforces including our Technology Taskforce. 
• Access to a wide range of Events and Webinars providing networking opportunities where you can learn and connect with your peers in a safe and confidential space to share both what works and what doesn’t. 
• Access to our Disability Smart self-assessment management tool including a diagnostic report, designed to help build your organisation’s disability strategy. 
• Access to our Knowledge Hub offering a wide range of resources and toolkits to support you to deliver a disability-smart business. Get a free taster of what’s on offer within our Knowledge Hub with our free Disability Essentials range.
• An opportunity to shape the public policy agenda through involvement in The Forum – our policy and research community. 
• Access to nearly 500 images from our Disability Smart Image Bank and guidance on selecting, choosing and using disability-smart images.

Organisations that join us as Partners receive additional benefits so many join as Members and then upgrade to Partner. 

Further membership benefits

• Review and validation of the Department for Work and Pensions ‘Disability Confident’ Level 3 (DCL3) – including a validation document, best practice advice, one-hour consultative phone call and recommendations to help inform and plan. 
• Access to our Global Business Disability Framework, a global tool to enable disability inclusion around the world. 
• Networking opportunities: make connections by attending our events, task forces and networks and following us on social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, X). 
• Policy review service – with a focus on disability-smart best practice, get up to five of your policies reviewed annually. 
• Advice on disability inclusion aspects of your annual workforce surveys, including question and language review. 
• Receive regular communications including our newsletter, legal updates and Technology Taskforce newsletter. 
• Signposting to other specialist services, including site audits, web development, consumer research and mystery shopping.
• Share your organisation’s experiences by hosting (with free places given in exchange) and speaking at our events, which are presently webinars.
• Profile for your organisation on our Member and Partner listing.
• Use of our logo on your email signature, job adverts, company websites, intranets etc.
• 10% discount on Evenbreak’s services – the Award-winning Job board for disabled people

Additional services

In addition to our standard services we offer other services and products at an additional fee. These include consultancy (Partners get 5 days a year included in their membership), and the opportunity to purchase a discounted license for our range of resource toolkits for use on your intranet.  

Testimonials

“Always easy to work with and they just ‘get it.’ Feedback is always positive. Always a source of up to date and relevant information, helping me keep up to date with what others are doing and what’s new in the space.”

Davina Critchley,  Sky (BDF Member)

“Being a Member of BDF has made a huge difference to our organisation….Having access to the Advice Line and the Knowledge Hub has also been very beneficial.”

Khanisa Riaz, The Alan Turing Institute (BDF Member)

“Disability is such a broad and ever evolving topic. It’s amazing to have an organisation be partners with us where we can really utilise that expertise. They help us to share best practice and improve our day-to-day accessibility.”

Nicola Gray, Reckitt (BDF Member)

“Our partnership with Business Disability Forum has been pivotal in shaping our early-stage strategy and objectives. The rich content in the Toolkits, Resources, and Taskforces, along with access to a dedicated Senior Business Partner and the Advice Service, has brought immense value to our organisation.”

Paula Aitkenhead, Schneider Electric (BDF Partner)

Contact us to discuss membership options

To find out more about membership, email David Goodchild, Director of Membership or call +44(0)79-1712-1160, email Adrian Ward, Director of Operations or call +(0)78-6689-0936 or complete the form below.

If you require this content in a different format, contact enquiries@businessdisabilityforum.org.uk.