Good weather has finally arrived and the 2024 summer holiday season is in full swing.  As UK and overseas hospitality venues fill up, a new factsheet from disability inclusion charity, Business Disability Forum guides businesses that serve or sell food on the steps to take to safeguard customers and employees who have food sensitivities.   The…

Should Artificial Intelligence (AI) be feared or welcomed by disabled people? This is the topic for discussion in the first episode of a new podcast series launched by Business Disability Forum (25 July). ‘Disability Today’ aims to put disabled people at the centre of the debate on key global challenges. Leading experts will join Business…

Business Disability Forum called on the future government to make disability employment an urgent priority at its annual conference in London on Tuesday (2 July). Addressing the conference of senior business leaders and leading employers, CEO of Business Disability Forum, Diane Lightfoot, said: “Only 53 per cent of disabled people of working age are in…

Scenario: Peter arrives for his first day at work with his Alsatian Emotional Support Dog. On seeing the dog, team member Nick becomes upset and locks himself in a toilet, only emerging when the dog has gone. As a child Nick was bitten by an Alsatian. He has a phobia of all dogs, but especially…

Business Disability Forum launched its manifesto today (13 June) setting out five key strategies for creating better experiences and opportunities for disabled people in the workplace, as customers and in society. Diane Lightfoot, CEO of Business Disability Forum, said: “Disability can and does affect everyone, either through personal experience or through the people we know….

A free online resource to help businesses meet the needs of disabled people around technology was launched by Business Disability Forum today (20 May). The Technology Toolkit provides practical advice and strategies for employers and businesses on how to introduce inclusive technology into their existing systems and to design with inclusion in mind. The toolkit…

Winners of Business Disability Forum’s Disability Smart Awards 2024 were announced at a ceremony in London last night (30 April), hosted in partnership with Bloomberg. Ten organisations and individuals won Disability Smart Awards this year. A further seven were awarded ‘Highly Commended’ status. Now in its tenth year, the Disability Smart Awards is an annual…

Business Disability Forum has announced the list of finalists for its prestigious Disability Smart Awards 2024. The annual Disability Smart Awards recognise organisations that are improving the life experiences of disabled employees and consumers by removing barriers to inclusion. The awards are a platform for sharing evidence and learnings from real life projects that have…

Business Disability Forum has called into question the Government’s commitment to support disabled people to find and stay in work in its response to the Chancellor’s Spring Budget statement today. Business Disability Forum’s Head of Policy, Angela Matthews, said: “Today’s budget saw important investment to build and grow businesses across the UK. However, with this…

Images of wheelchair and mobility scooter users are the most likely to have been seen in content to represent disability (by 26 per cent of respondents). Less than a quarter (23 per cent) of people with a disability* surveyed agreed that images of disabled people used in content they had seen, watched or read, reflected…

Responding to the publication of the Government’s Disability Action Plan (5 February) Diane Lightfoot, CEO of Business Disability Forum, said: “We welcome the publication of the Disability Action Plan and many of the proposals set out within it. We are particularly pleased to see the mention of our “Technology for Life” concept which we believe…

Business Disability Forum is calling on the Prime Minister to rethink his decision to downgrade the Disability Minister role and instead use this as an opportunity to make disabled people a government priority. Diane Lightfoot, CEO of Business Disability Forum, said: “We remain shocked and deeply concerned by the Government’s decision to replace the Disability…