These retailers earn marks for on-the-job disability inclusion
Fifteen retailers were among the companies with a 100% score on a listing of the best workplaces for disability inclusion.
The Disability Equality Index (DEI) has released its 2023 “Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion.” A joint initiative of Disability:IN and American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), the DEI is designed as a comprehensive benchmarking tool that helps companies build a roadmap of measurable, tangible actions that they can take to achieve disability inclusion and equality.
The report noted that a score of 100 does not mean to convey “perfection” as AAPD and Disability:IN recognize that there is no “right way” to practice inclusion, and that some practices may be more practical for some companies or industries than others.
“A score of 100 on the DEI simply means that a company adheres to many of the numerous leading disability practices featured in the DEI,” the study said.
The DEI measures the following: culture & leadership; enterprise-wide access; employment practices (benefits, recruitment, employment, education, retention & advancement, accommodations); community engagement; supplier diversity; and non-U.S. operations. Each company receives a score, on a scale of zero (0) to 100. Those earning 80 and above are recognized as “Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion.”
Here are the retail companies that scored 100:
Albertsons;
Amazon;
Best Buy;
CVS Health ;
Giant Eagle;
Kroger Company;
JC Penney;
Lowe’s;
Lululemon;
Meijer;
Qurate Retail Group;
Starbucks;
Target;
Walgreens; and
Walmart.
Here are the retailers companies that scored 80 to 90:
Bath & Body Works;
PVH; and
Sephora.
The 2023 DEI report revealed encouraging signs of ways companies are implementing more disability inclusion throughout their corporate culture, leadership, employment and accessibility programs and practices from the previous year, such as:
- 93% encourage their employees with disabilities to self-identify, up from 91% in 2022;
- 72% market directly to the disability community by depicting people with disabilities in their external or internal marketing and/or advertising materials, up from 70% in 2022; and
- 64% report having a requirement to make their digital products accessible and usable for people with disabilities, up from 62% in 2022.
A total of 485 corporations across 30 diverse industries including technology, banking and healthcare utilized the DEI in 2023 to benchmark their disability inclusion efforts, a 17% increase in participation from 2022.
The complete 2023 “Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion” list is available online.