Disability Inclusion Index
Voice of Specially Abled People, Inc.
Authored by VOSAP Research Interns, Esha Parikh and Anna Sheehan
Diversity and Inclusion as relates to Persons with Disabilities (PwD) is gaining attention among corporate leaders. Voice of SAP is a global Advocacy organization, in a Special Consultative Status with UN ECOSOC, working towards Empowerment and Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities. It is important to learn how corporations in various industries are embracing, practicing inclusion of PwD.
With this background, VOSAP has come up with a framework to help corporations devise their Disability and Inclusion (D&I) strategy that is comprehensive in nature and a useful matrix to start measuring. The Disability Inclusion Index (DII) is a framework that quantifies and measures a company’s inclusivity of PwD based on a 100 point system. DII measures inclusivity through two perspectives: (a) Internal, through an employee’s experience, working for the company and (b) External, through a consumer’s experience. The weight distribution of each category is in Table 1.
Data for the DII framework is being collected through industry-specific surveys, consumer surveys, and will result in an objective analysis by industry segment. A holistic understanding of how well corporations measure in terms of their disability inclusion involves measuring corporations’ current actions and attitudes objectively and subjectively, customers’ perceptions and experiences etc. The analysis of the survey results will compare companies of the same industry by aggregating each question’s points. “Yes” responses receive the full score(s), and the “No” responses do not earn any points.
The DII framework will be applied to in two phases. Phase 1 will consist of industry-specific surveys circulated amongst employees to gather internal data of a company’s inclusion practices. Phase 2 will consist of consumer-oriented surveys to gather consumer insight into the external inclusion practices of respective companies. The aggregate points from the industry survey and the consumer insight survey determine the total DII score of the company.
The goal of the DII framework is to provide corporations of all sizes and industry segments a standardized and comprehensive benchmark to measure its efforts in disability inclusion. Corporations can take the survey results to identify areas of improvement for an ongoing effort to create a more inclusive and accessible corporate experience for their employees and customers. It has been increasingly more crucial for companies to create an inclusive experience for employees and consumers to keep pace with UN SDGs and the growing expectations for inclusivity by their stakeholders.
Table 1: DII framework with Weight Distribution
| Internal Practices
Employee |
Weight
50 pts |
External Practices
Consumer |
Weight
50 pts |
| Accessible Infrastructure | 12.5 pts | Accessible Infrastructure | 17.5 pts |
| Inclusive Workforce | 12.5 pts | Products and Advertisement | 15 pts |
| Corporate and Employee Policy | 12.5 pts | CSR Initiatives | 12.5 pts |
| Product Development | 12.5 pts | Supplier Inclusivity | 5 pts |
