Beth Wooller

She/Her
Commercial Strategist and Disability Advocate
Sainsbury’s

Award category:

Business and Finance

Beth is a passionate disability advocate and leader in the Retail sector. She started her career as a Management Consultant at Deloitte, having graduated from Cambridge University. She is now a Commercial Strategy Manager at Sainsbury’s, where she also founded and chairs the EnAble Disability Network, the first of its kind in the company’s history.

Born with a moderate-severe hearing impairment, Beth wears a hearing aid and has a lifetime of experience living and working with a hidden disability. She is dedicated to using her personal experience and successes to demonstrate what people with disabilities can achieve. She focuses on raising awareness, increasing confidence and simplifying workplace processes to better support people with disabilities.

Beth has extensive experience championing disability. Under her tenure she has grown the Sainsbury’s EnAble network to ~2,000 members, with her advocacy leading to Board Sponsor Listening Groups that have formed the blueprint for aiding greater disability representation, and a greatly increased calendar of disability events to celebrate disability and raise awareness.

As an ambassador for AccessAble, Beth has used her experience of hearing loss and as a trained interior designer to drive improved accessibility of websites, venues and small businesses across the UK. She has participated in panel debates at disability forums and employment conferences, helping businesses to see accessibility challenges from a disabled person’s perspective, and sharing how reasonable adjustments can empower and support disabled employees. She works closely with the RNID to create inclusive workplace cultures for people with hearing loss, with her insights helping to shape their strategy, campaigns and to agitate for cultural change.

As a presenter volunteer for the National Deaf Children’s Society, Beth has shared her experience of congenital hearing loss with over 100 families, inspiring them through her achievements and helping to remove the barriers that hold deaf children back.

Beth imagines a world where people with disabilities can achieve their full potential. One invaluable piece of advice to her was that asking for support is not a weakness but a strength. She uses her successes to show others what is possible with the right support. To help empower others to have the confidence to ask for help and in doing so, to break down the barriers that hold disabled people back.

Living with a hearing loss and speech impediment, I know how much courage it takes to believe in oneself and to have courage to stand out and be different. While there is never a straight-line path to success, those with disabilities like me should never be underestimated. With the right support at the right time, anything is possible.

Q&A

Beth Wooller
My advice would be to always follow what you love and your strengths – the two often go together hand in hand. Know yourself and have faith and conviction to follow that path, no matter what others may say! On your journey, always try to keep an open mind, ask questions (there is a never a stupid question!) and try to learn as much as you can. You might think others have much to learn about your disability, but we have so much we can learn to help others help us! Appreciating that we don’t all know everything is the best way to learn and grow together.
In everything I do, I aim to inspire, educate and support those with disabilities and their allies. From sharing my personal story with senior business leaders, to hosting Board sponsored listening groups with disabled and neurodiverse colleagues at Sainsbury’s, I have worked to build awareness of and improve the lived experience of people with disabilities in the workplace. I have inspired over a thousand colleagues through live Q&As with well-known figures including Ellie Simmonds, Jonnie Peacock and Theo Smith, showing them the strengths disability brings and helping to drive culture change across the organisation. By sharing my experience of congenital hearing loss and glue ear as part of my charitable work, I have helped to raise awareness among deaf allies including families, education and healthcare providers, including helping audiologists to enhance their practice. In my capacity as a freelance accessibility consultant I have contributed to making over 70,000 public venues across the UK – from restaurants and cafes to hospitals and supermarkets – more accessible to those with hearing loss. My best practice input has helped to improve accessibility information to over 1.8 million disabled people, helping them to make more informed decisions about going out.
My goal is to continue to raise awareness around disability and to use my experiences to help break down the barriers to hold people back. I passionately believe that support has to start early and, whether it is with Sainsbury’s, through my charitable work, or in my freelance consultancy, I continually seek opportunities to understand how we can provide support that is easier to access, sooner. I also believe that people with disabilities have a unique strength and power to succeed, and look to help ambitious people build their confidence and understand how to ask for help to thrive in the workplace. To this end, I am currently writing a book based on my positive, practical coaching model which supports readers to navigate workplace challenges and thrive.
I love to cycle and also enjoy walking with family and friends – it’s always invigorating to be in nature, enjoy the fresh air and put the world to rights! I also love food and wine, so any excuse to go out for lunch or dinner, or try my hand at a new recipe when we are having guests over. I often enjoy most the simple pleasures I enjoyed as a child – a walk along the beach, cinema with pick and mix, or playing games in the garden. We are never too old!
I am sporty and am a keen cyclist, runner, tennis player and boxer. Pushing myself always helps remind me what I’m capable of. I love combining this with my charitable endeavours – cycling the Long to Paris and Land’s End to John O’Groats to raise over £4,000 for charity. I also enjoy embracing my creative side with fine art painting and as an interior designer. Creating beautiful, functional spaces where people feel truly at home is so satisfying.
Dogs (I’m allergic to cats!)
If I could change one thing, it would be the limiting belief that disabled people can’t be productive or successful workers. Given the right support, my experience shows that people with disabilities can achieve just as any other person can. However, that support must come earlier – ideally from school age – and evolve all the way through that person’s life.
Within the workplace, there are two key components for helping improve the lives of disabled people. First, line managers play a pivotal role in enabling employees to thrive and so we must help them to be more open, inquisitive and aware. Second, funding support must be more readily available, to help those with disabilities to access the tools and technology they need from the start of – and throughout – their career journey.

Areas of expertise

Accessibility, Business, Charity, social enterprise, Disability Advocacy, Employment

Disability Power 100 profile information is self-submitted by the profile subject. Shaw Trust understands and respects that disability and impairment descriptors and language use varies from person to person. Shaw Trust assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or discrepancies in the content of this, or any other, profile page.

Image credits: Dan Adams Photography
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