Fortune 500 companies and employment of people with disabilities: The intermediary role of disability inclusion policies and practices

1 Introduction

People with disabilities are one of the most stigmatized and discriminated-against groups in the United States (Chan et al., 2009; Livneh et al., 2014; Yaghmaian et al., 2019). Ableism, which is defined as discrimination and social prejudice against people with physical or mental disabilities, significantly restricts the disability community’s opportunities for gainful employment (Chan et al., 2024; Lui, 2022; Bezyak et al., 2021; Yaghmaian et al., 2019). This restriction of opportunity is illustrated by an employment rate of 36.7% for U.S. adults with disabilities as compared to 74.6% for U.S. adults without disabilities based on disability-employment data from February of 2024 (Kessler Foundation, 2024). As a result of this low employment rate (which represents a 37.9% gap in employment between people with and without disabilities), people with disabilities are at elevated risk of experiencing the negative consequences of unemployment including poor general health (physical, mental, and social health), high levels of stress and anxiety, low self-esteem, dejection, and social isolation (Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, n.d.).

Bezyak and colleagues (2021) conducted a comprehensive literature review to examine employers’ stigmatizing attitudes toward people with disabilities. They identified eight common stereotypes: 1) people with disabilities cannot effectively perform the nature of the work required, 2) people with disabilities require extra time to learn new job tasks, 3) people with disabilities require expensive accommodations to do the job, 4) people with disabilities have trouble getting their work done on time and often need help from others, 5) co-workers do not feel comfortable working with people with disabilities, 6) people with disabilities tend to call in sick more often than other workers, 7) people with disabilities have trouble getting along with others on the job, and 8) people with disabilities are litigious. Bezyak et al. (2021) reported that these stigmatizing attitudes were negatively associated with employers’ intentions to hire people with disabilities; the more stereotypes an employer indulged, the lower their inclination to hire workers with disabilities.

The COVID-19 pandemic, along with the Black Lives Matter movement, prompted employers to become more aware of unconscious bias (at the individual level) and systemic bias (at the organizational level) against Black/African American individuals and other minority groups (Chan et al., 2024). Much of corporate America has pledged to increase the workforce’s representation of Black/African Americans and other minority groups, including people with disabilities, which are the largest minority group in the U.S. A disability-employment survey conducted by Accenture, a Fortune Global 500 company specializing in information technology services and consulting, indicated that American businesses that hired and supported workers with disabilities observed improved performance and productivity with 28% higher revenues and 30% higher profit margins (Accenture, 2023). Those findings highlight the importance of disability inclusion in the workplace; hiring and accommodating workers with disabilities is not merely a matter of legal compliance or public relations – it is good for business.

Every year, the National Organization on Disability (NOD) uses the NOD Employment Tracker to evaluate and recognize companies that serve as leaders in disability employment. In 2023, the leading disability employers included Accenture, Boeing, Centene, Grainger, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, Roche, Textron, and Walgreens (NOD, 2023). All these businesses are Fortune 500 companies, and they have all been recognized because they have not only embraced inclusivity but have also taken concrete steps to break down barriers for people with disabilities and create an environment for all workers to thrive. Undoubtedly, employing qualified people with disabilities can improve an organization’s competitive edge; meet corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards; and enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policy. Correspondingly, providing gainful employment opportunities for people with disabilities will reduce inequities in the workplace, help build career pathways to the middle class for all workers, improve general health and well-being, and allow individuals with disabilities to contribute as productive members of society (Strauser, 2021).

Even so, there is a lack of disability-employment studies that clearly identify specific disability inclusion policy and practices implemented by employers who are committed to hiring and retaining people with disabilities in the workplace. Chan and colleagues (2021) conducted a systematic review of the disability-inclusion literature, a focus group, and a Delphi study with employers. They identified 23 evidence-based disability inclusion policy and practice items, which are represented in the Disability Inclusion Profiler (DIP-23), and all these items are associated with competitive integrated employment of people with disabilities in the workplace (Chan et al., 2024). The DIP-23 is a psychometrically sound measure that can be used by disability-employment researchers to assess specific policy and practices that promote welcoming disability inclusion climate in business organizations.

2 Methods

3 Results

3.2 Parallel mediation analysis

To answer the final research questions, we conducted a parallel mediation analysis with Fortune 500 companies as a predictor and disability-employment rates as the outcome variable and scores of executive level DIP policy and practices and mid-manager level DIP policy and practices as parallel mediators (see Fig. 1).

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Fig. 1

A parallel mediation analysis of the effect of Fortune 500 companies on utilization rate. Note: The dotted line denotes the effect of Fortune 500 Companies on utilization rate, after controlling for the mediatory effects of Executive DIP and Mid-manager DIP. a₁, a₂, b₁, and b₂, are standardized regression coefficients. Utilization rate is a term used to represent disability-employment rate in Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. ^***p < .001.

Total effect. The Fortune 500 predictor variable (0 = non-Fortune 500 companies, 1 = Fortune 500 companies) was positively and significantly associated with disability-employment rates: c = .72, p < .001, 95% confidence interval (95% CI;.52,.91).

Direct effects. The Fortune 500 variable was directly related to executive level DIP (a₁ = .36, p < .001, 95% CI;.16,.57) and the mid-manager level DIP (a₂= .65, p < .001, 95% CI;.45,.84). The relationship between each of the mediators and disability employment rates, controlling for the effect of the Fortune 500 variable was assessed. Executive level DIP scores were significantly associated with disability employment rates after controlling for the effect of Fortune 500 companies and mid-manager level DIP scores (b₁ = .23, p < .001). Mid-manager level DIP scores were not significantly associated with disability employment rates after controlling for the effect of the Fortune 500 variable and executive level DIP (b₂ = .10). However, the direct effect between Fortune 500 and disability employment rate was reduced from.72(c) to.57 after controlling for the effect of the mediators c’=.57, p < .001, 95% CI (.38,.76) indicating that the mediators only partially mediated the effect of Fortune 500 on disability employment rate.

Indirect effects. The mediation effects were estimates of the indirect effects of Fortune 500 on disability employment rate through executive level DIP and mid-manager level DIP scores. The specific indirect effects are considered statistically significant if the bias-corrected bootstrap CIs for the products of these paths do not include zero (Hayes, 2013). Using the PROCESS procedure developed by Hayes (2013) with 5,000 bootstrap samples revealed a significant indirect effect of Fortune 500 on disability employment rate through executive level DIP (point estimate = .08, 95% CI:.03,.15), but not through mid-manager level DIP scores (point estimate = .06, 95% CI: -.02,.16), suggesting the importance of the top-down approach to foster behavioral changes associated with disability inclusion across all business units of companies.

It is well established that Fortune 500 companies lead in employing individuals with disabilities compared to non-Fortune 500 companies (NOD, 2023). “Fortune 500” refers to an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks 500 of the largest U.S. corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years (Rogelberg, 2024). More and more companies and CEOs are learning that a strong business includes people with disabilities, as well as diversity in race/ethnicity, gender, and cultural backgrounds, and business leaders across industries have pledged to become more diverse and inclusive (Accenture, 2023; Boston University, 2024). This commitment from employers is related to various factors including recent research demonstrating the effective use of disability inclusion policy and practices to increase sales revenue, expand customer bases, and ultimately increase profits (Boudreau, 2023). Disability inclusion policy and practices not only make good business sense, but they also help companies promote social accountability within the organization, with stakeholders, and in the public eye (Accenture, 2023; Fernando, 2023; Minkin, 2023). In the present study, we found that Fortune 500 companies are more likely to have disability inclusion policy and practices and have higher disability employment rates, demonstrating greater efforts to hire people with disabilities than non-Fortune 500 companies.

In the United States, the state-federal vocational rehabilitation (VR) program serves over 1,000,000 people with disabilities per year, with an annual budget of $4.1 billion (Rehabilitation Services Administration, 2022). State VR agencies provide comprehensive and coordinated services for people with disabilities at no cost to the consumer (Rehabilitation Services Administration, 2022), and the program has a long history of assisting individuals with disabilities in achieving their independent living and employment goals. The Rehabilitation Act, amended by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) in 2014, requires state VR agencies to improve their capabilities to conduct local labor market analysis, improve employer engagement, and work with local educational agencies to provide skills training for in-demand jobs to improve employment success and the quality of employment outcomes of people with disabilities (Rubin et al., 2016). Fortune 500 companies, with their commitment to disability inclusion, can serve as excellent partners in these efforts. State VR agencies must work cooperatively with Fortune 500 companies to review areas of disability inclusion policies and practices that are working well and areas that need improvement. The lessons learned from these partnerships can then be shared with non-Fortune 500 companies, which will then expand the use of disability inclusion policies and practices, leading to improvements in the number and quality of employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Our findings indicate that a top-down approach is significantly more effective than a bottom-up approach for increasing the employment rate of people with disabilities in the workplace. Therefore, employer engagement strategies should focus on requesting assistance from governors to connect leadership of state VR agencies with executives in Fortune 500 companies. After obtaining commitments from executives, state VR counselors and VR professionals professionals who provide services for state agencies can work with mid-level managers and staff to identify the types of assistance needed to interview, hire, support, and promote people with disabilities in Fortune 500 companies. VR counselors can offer training to both managers and coworkers on unconscious bias/systemic discrimination, disability etiquette, and effective disability inclusion strategies to improve the culture of the business organizations and the experiences of individuals with and without disabilities working side-by-side (Bezyak et al., 2024). To further improve the disability inclusion climate among large corporations, accessible onboarding trainings must incorporate disability inclusion as a topic, and current policies and practices must be readily available to ensure all new employees receive this vital information (Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion [EARN], n.d.).

5 Conclusion

In the present study, we demonstrated that Fortune 500 companies are more likely to implement disability inclusion policy and practices than non-Fortune 500 companies, which contributes to higher disability employment rates among these organizations. Leaders in state VR agencies must make concerted efforts to engage executives in Fortune 500 companies to implement effective disability inclusion policy and practices to promote disability-employment of qualified individuals with disabilities. VR counselors and other vocational rehabilitation professionals can work closely with mid-level managers and staff to implement these policies and practices. Helping people with disabilities find employment in Fortune 500 companies will improve their opportunities to find gainful employment with strong benefits and employer-based insurance, which, in turn, helps state VR agencies meet the mandates of the Rehabilitation Act to improve competitive integrated employment and the quality of employment for people with disabilities nationwide.