Sara Weller: I don't want to be the one disabled director in a thousand
Weller, 63, who has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair, sits on the board of telecoms giant BT, which is on the FTSE 100 index of the biggest firms listed in the UK.
In her high-flying career, she has been the boss of Argos and a director of Virgin Money, Lloyds Banking Group and United Utilities.
However, she believes that she is the only one out of about a thousand board directors of firms in the blue-chip Footsie share index to have a known disability. She said: 'Most of all, I would not like to be the one in a thousand. By this time next year, I would like to see 25 in a thousand, not one.'
Weller was speaking at the House of Lords last week at the launch of a report by ActionAble 2025, an initiative she co-founded, which aims to help disabled people reach their full potential at work.
She said: 'Approaching 450 of the thousand or so director positions on FTSE 100 boards are held by women and around 190 by individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds. But only one is held by a person with a disability, and that's me.'
Many people, she believes, try to hide their disabilities because they fear it will damage their careers.
'Action is urgently needed,' she added. 'Because there are no role models and no one talking about the issue, we have cast a veil of secrecy.
'It is not about businesses being nice to people – they are missing out on talent and on insight into growth opportunities. Two in five customers with disabilities say they can't get the products and services they need.'
Weller is calling on big firms to be transparent about their targets and progress on disability, to make sure their recruitment processes are fair and for boards to listen to disabled employees.
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