Innovating Inclusion

Employers book Shani Dhanda's keynotes and consultancy workshops to rewrite hiring policies, vendor criteria, and workplace culture around disability inclusion before exclusion becomes entrenched.

ENABLE Model location

• Builder-side Interventions → Set Requirements that Include Accessibility

What it is

Shani Dhanda is a British disability activist, consultant, and speaker who partners with industry leaders -- including Virgin Media, LinkedIn, Google, Primark, Target, and ITV -- to integrate disability inclusion, accessibility, and equity across their operations. Born in Birmingham with osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease), Dhanda broke her legs 14 times by age sixteen and was rejected from over 100 job applications as a teenager due to her disability.1 She now delivers keynotes, workshops, and strategic consultancy that equip organizations with the mindset, behaviour, and tools to make inclusion a core business practice. Her work has reached over 1.5 million employees worldwide.3

Dhanda's consultancy represents a builder-side intervention at the requirement-setting stage: she works with organizations to set inclusion as a core requirement before products ship and before hiring practices exclude disabled candidates.

Why it matters

When employers fail to embed disability inclusion into hiring policies and workplace design, disabled people are forced to compensate -- disclosing conditions under pressure, navigating inaccessible workplaces, or abandoning job searches entirely. Dhanda's work addresses abandonment by intervening at the requirement-setting stage: training leadership to set the tone at the top, and equipping product managers, designers, and HR teams to make accessibility a default rather than an afterthought. She also founded the Asian Disability Network and the Diversability Card (a discount card for disabled people), addressing the intersectional precarity that disabled people of colour face.1

Real-world example

Dhanda was named to BBC's 100 Women list in 2020 and has been recognized multiple times on the Shaw Trust Disability Power 100, earning the title of the UK's most influential disabled person in 2023.1 She delivered a TEDx London talk in 2022 on making inclusion everyone's responsibility, and was featured in LinkedIn's largest UK advertising campaign, earning the title of LinkedIn Changemaker.1 Jeff Dodds, former COO of Virgin Media, said of working with Dhanda: "Shani has been one of the key individuals driving the business's focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. She is an expert in her field."3

What care sounds like (builder-side interventions)

Care at the requirement-setting stage involves embedding inclusion before products and policies ship:

• "We're bringing Shani in to audit our hiring process so we remove disability barriers before candidates encounter them."
• "Our vendor criteria now include accessibility requirements because inclusion is a business standard, not a favour."
• "We train every hiring manager on disability inclusion before they post a single role."

What neglect sounds like (builder-side interventions)

Neglect involves treating disability inclusion as optional or cosmetic:

• "We'll address accessibility if a disabled employee asks for accommodations."
• "Diversity training covers gender and race -- disability isn't a priority right now."
• "We don't have disabled employees, so we don't need to change our processes."

What compensation sounds like (navigator-side compensations)

Compensation describes the labor disabled people undertake when upstream inclusion is absent:

• "I applied to over 100 roles and was rejected from every one because of my disability."
• "I have to explain my access needs at every interview because nobody thought to ask."
• "I stopped applying to companies that don't mention accessibility in their job postings -- it tells me everything I need to know."

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All observations occur within the context of employment, corporate culture, and disability inclusion consulting.