- On the 32^nd anniversary of the American Disabilities Act the Valuable 500 announce 28 early adopters of its leadership up mentoring programme from members spanning 4 continents

- Generation Valuable participants will be paired with a mentor at C-Suite level within their organisation and will explore each of the Valuable 500's transformation pillars

- Early adopters include Coles Group, EY and Macquarie

WASHINGTON, July 26, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today marks the 32^nd anniversary of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA). This changed the world as we know it, activating legislation which provided people with disabilities access to buildings, equitable education and made it illegal to discriminate against a qualified person for employment.

It is important to recognise the strides we have made towards disability inclusion – there is further progress to be made. The way society views disability needs to evolve, dispelling the myth that disability is something to pity or fear. By changing this and recognising how disabled people enrich communities, society will be empowered to ensure disabled people are included.

'Generation Valuable' will serve as an unique leadership opportunity for people with disabilities to build the future of the corporate C-Suite, driving disability inclusion through systematic change and revolutionising the boardrooms of tomorrow. Building a community of disabled talent who share their experiences upward to inform the C-suite of today about how to make businesses more inclusive.

Caroline Casey, Founder, the Valuable 500, commented:

"This initiative proves that there is an array of disabled talent within businesses, and that they are more than capable of occupying positions of power and leadership. The Valuable 500 is striving to radically change the awful results of research conducted by Tortoise Media that found that 'no FTSE company had a senior leader or above who identified as having a disability.'"

The complete list of early adopters includes:

• Alstom
• ATOS
• AXA Group
• Boston Consulting Group
• Centrica
• Channel 4
• Clifford Chance
• Coles Group
• Deloitte 
• Enel
• EY
• Fidelity International
• HSBC
• ISS/AS
• ITV
• L'Oréal
• Macquarie Group
• Mahindra
• Nielsen 
• MSD 
• Omnicom Group 
• Ottobock
• P&G
• Reach PLC
• Roche
• Springer Nature
• TD Bank Group 
• Telefonica

 Steven Cain, CEO, Coles Group, commented:

"At Coles, accessibility and disability inclusion is a key priority and our aim is always to build a team that's representative of the diverse local communities we serve. We're proud to take part in Generation Valuable to provide an important mentoring and development opportunity to our talented team members with disability and support them to become future leaders at Coles. This program is an exciting next step in Coles' commitment to provide meaningful employment and career pathways to people with disability."

Find out more about The Valuable 500 here.