Stephane Leblois

Emphasize impact and scalability of your endeavours. There are so many wonderful one-off ideas, programmes, tools, and products that hit the market and stagnate from lacking scalability and measurable impact. Being able to prove the value and efficacy of a solution while also demonstrating plans for growth are critical determinants of a solution’s success.

You are not alone – find your community and you may find the answers to the uncertainties or barriers you encounter in your first forays into your working life. We are a global community of 1.3 billion + people, the majority of whom have or will find themselves in your position at some point. There is strength, comfort, and opportunity in knowing that you do not have to navigate this often challenging landscape alone.

Valuable 500 was the first organisation in the world to break the CEO silence on disability. We are now endeavouring to keep disability at the top of the leadership agenda, drive our companies to change harmful disability narratives and better meet disabled consumers’ access needs in their branding and advertising, and hold themselves and each other to account through accurately and transparently reporting their disability performance data in public forum.

Our role in the disability rights ecosystem is to galvanise businesses to leverage their collective influence to drive systems change for disabled people.

I spend time with my family, enjoy the outdoors, and play football and rugby.

My wife, son, and dog are my greatest sources of joy and inspiration. I also have a circle of amazing friends and colleagues who support me in my personal and professional pursuits.

This is a tough question – aside from eliminating exclusion of all forms toward disabled people, I think eliminating homelessness and/or housing insecurity is high on that list, as it is a determinant for so many other socioeconomic outcomes. Poverty an low socioeconomic status or outcomes has an unfortunately strong tie to disability as well.

While players external to the community – such as policymakers, business leaders, and others – must do their part to promote disability inclusion and accessibility, the community itself must break down the silos and insidious competition among organisations and disability subgroups to form a united global front. It always baffles me to bear witness to the fractures and politics which prevent disability organisations from working together and creating a unified agenda for change.