Katy Talikowska, CEO of global disability organisation Valuable 500

Katy Talikowska is CEO of Valuable 500, the global disability organisation founded by blind entrepreneur/activist Caroline Casey. The organisation represents 500 major businesses such as Microsoft, Unilever and Google who collectively employ more than 22m employees in 41 countries across the world – all of whom have pledged to put disability inclusion on their boardroom agenda. 

Before joining Valuable 500 last year, Talikowska had spent 33 years working in advertising/marketing including a 12-year stint at leading ad agency AMV BBDO. It was here where she played a key role in Maltesers’ pioneering 2016 disability campaign. The series of adverts were universally-acclaimed including one commercial which featured two women using British Sign Language to tell a joke about a dog eating a hearing aid (it was initially broadcast without subtitles, therefore leaving most viewers out of the joke). Aside from raising awareness about disability, the campaign resulted in 6.4m purchasing the product after watching the advert. 

Talikowska currently also serves as leadership mentor for Disability Rights UK and is working on Valuable 500’s SYNC25 accountability summit in Japan. She spoke with Influence editor, Lysanne Currie:

Disabled people are often natural problem-solvers. I once mentored a man with cerebral palsy. When he was 18-years-old he wanted to date girls but was embarrassed about the custom-made Velcro shoes he wore because his tremors prevented him from tying shoelaces with his hands. So, he learned how to tie his shoelaces with his mouth instead. It illustrates how people with disabilities are always problem-solving, whether it’s developing hacks for getting dressed or slicing a bagel for breakfast. This level of innate ingenuity and life-hacking skills could be a huge growth opportunity for firms.

The way people with disabilities are portrayed in media is too polarised. Either it’s the ‘victim’ being pitied, or they are Paralympians being put on a pedestal as superheroes. We’ve got to move away from these two extreme traits. 

The Maltesers’ ad was effective because… it depicted those with disabilities as normal people talking about embarrassing moments. It showed viewers that people with disabilities could laugh at the same things as non-disabled people or want to go out and get drunk. This hadn’t really happened in mainstream advertising before.

There is more adaptable fashion and specialised clothing for dogs than for people with disabilities. Even as a big dog-lover, I find that frightening.

The backlash against wokeness in the US worries me. Many US companies have a mission to put ‘good’ back on the agenda, but this is slipping down [due to rising anti-woke movement]. I keep thinking ahead to the US election in November and what may or may not happen. 

Tech firms such as Google, Microsoft and Apple are often the most passionate advocates for inclusion. Why? Their business revolves around innovation. If you’re creating a new piece of tech such as a phone, you want the consumer experience to be as seamless and user-friendly as possible. 

Microsoft has made accessibility training mandatory for all employees. Apparently 97% of their global workforce has taken part. It’s a wonderful human-first approach that unites the entire company. The visibility of that training can also inspire procedures and initiatives that help everybody.

If you’re developing a campaign that aims to authentically represent people… then bring in their voices. Make sure your strategists, account managers, creatives, producers are a beautiful, diverse pool of people of all abilities. It’s just common sense. 

My first involvement with Valuable 500 was offering a pro bono awareness campaign to help launch the organisation at Davos 2019. The campaign was born out of founder Caroline Casey knocking on the doors of C-suites telling them it was amazing they were now employing DEI leaders and thinking about gender, race and sexual orientation. But she also pointed out hardly any of these people were talking about disability which is intersectional and affects one in five people.  

Things are changing on inclusion but more progress needs to be made. Today, there are many adverts/campaigns that have featured wheelchair-users, for example. But that isn’t enough. We need to look at disability being central to the narrative or having disabled people as the main protagonists. 

Procter & Gamble is paving the way when it comes to advertising. By 2025, they aim to have all their European advertising fully-accessible by audio descriptions and closed captioning for those with visual or auditory impairments. 

There’s lots of nervousness and anxiety around the use of language when it comes to inclusion. To be honest, I’m always learning and educating myself the whole time too, wondering if an idiom I’m about to use could unintentionally be seen as ableist. That’s why I think it’s important to create a culture that doesn’t call people out and shame them, but is kind and courteous instead, for the spirit of education and sharing. Wouldn’t it be terrible if we turned people away because they’re so fearful of saying the wrong thing? 

To paraphrase [management thinker] Peter Drucker, culture eats strategy for breakfast. Considering that 80% of disabilities are invisible, organisations should foster the right environment to make their people feel comfortable bringing their whole selves to work. Companies should always ask new employees what they can do to help them work to the best of their abilities. 

CEOs of big multinationals can accomplish more during one boardroom meeting than some governments can achieve in decades. When you have that level of opportunity and responsibility, it’s important to make sure stuff gets done. Business-leaders are in the driving-seat of change, yet too many of them view inclusion as a compliance issue, or tokenistic or a ‘nice-to-have’. It’s not. It’s fundamental for both business and society.

If everybody within a boardroom tackles a problem in the same way, that’s dull and uninspiring. However, there’s no doubt in my mind that if an organisation welcomes, develops, grows, trains and pushes people who see the world differently into leadership positions, then they’ll prosper.