Why companies who hire people with disabilities outperformed their peers

Hiring and supporting employees with disabilities isn’t just a matter of corporate social responsibility or public relations; it’s just good business.

According to a recent study of 140 U.S. companies by Accenture–alongside the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and Disability:IN–those that offered the most inclusive working environment for disabled employees achieved an average of 28% higher revenue, 30% greater economic profit margins, and twice the net income of their industry peers between 2015 and 2018.

Furthermore, those companies that were rated as “disability inclusion champions” were twice as likely to have a higher shareholder return than their peer group. Even non-“champions” that were actively working to better support employees with disabilities were four times more likely to report higher shareholder returns.

“This really gives us and other business leaders the opportunity to bridge the conversation from philanthropic to foundational,” says Laurie Henneborn, managing director of Accenture Research and lead researcher of the “Getting to Equal: The Disability Inclusion Advantage” study.

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A community plagued by misconceptions

Though the study’s findings may sound counterintuitive to some, they begin to ring true the more you strip away common misconceptions about the disabled community.

“People make a lot of assumptions about people with disabilities and what their limitations might be, usually for the worse,” explained Accenture’s general counsel and chief compliance officer, Chad Jerdee, who sponsored the report.

After Jerdee had his lower left leg amputated as a result of getting hit by a drunk driver in 2014, he says the biggest change he experienced wasn’t in himself, but in how people treated him.

A community plagued by misconceptions

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