The Valuable 500 is on a mission to end disability exclusion
By Lisa Guthrie Deabill
Caroline Casey
Communications Director at The Valuable 500 , Ryan Curtis-Johnson , spoke to us about company founder Caroline Casey , the organization ’ s vision , their 2025 Accountability Summit in Tokyo and an inspiring new mentorship program . Learn more at thevaluable500 . com
A fearless push against barriers
The Valuable 500 founder , Caroline Casey has a fearless nature of pushing boundaries , which might be how she convinced 500 companies to join the organization . Based in England and launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos , 2019 , the group ’ s vision is to end disability exclusion through synchronized collective action . Caroline grew up in Ireland .
She was diagnosed at birth with ocular albinism , a genetic condition that causes extremely blurry vision . But it wasn ’ t until she was a teenager that she found out she was legally blind .
Ryan Curtis-Johnson , Communications Director at The Valuable 500 , said , “ She knew no different . She just thought that was how people saw and so it didn ' t hold her back in life .” He added , “ The stigma surrounding disability , the negative connotation , spurred her to drive change so people can develop in a career of their choice .”
But Caroline did not jump into advocacy right away , having worked in the corporate world , where she didn ' t disclose her own disability for many years . She worked in change management within Accenture , which drove her to push for disability inclusion within the workplace . In addition to being an entrepreneur and founder of The Valuable 500 , Caroline is also
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