Getting a job is a key step to achieving financial independence. For people with disabilities, finding work can be challenging, as they may face barriers like discriminatory hiring practices or inaccessible physical work spaces. Here are examples of some companies that hire people with disabilities, implementing inclusive programs for seeking out and fostering talent and creating communities focused on advocating for accessibility.
Companies That Hire People With Disabilties
- Novo Nordisk
- firsthand
- PepsiCo
- CVS Health
- AT&T
- United Health Group
- GSK
Companies That Hire People With Disabilities
SoFi is a finance firm that provides banking, lending and investing services and products. Its name is short for “social finance” and its products include personal loans, private student loans, mortgages and insurance. SoFi is deeply invested in uplifting and serving people with disabilities in its hiring practices and maintains its proudly anti-ableist values by celebrating National Disability Awareness Month every October.
UnitedHealth Group is a healthcare and wellness organization that provides services through two companies: United Healthcare, which offers full-spectrum health benefit coverage, and Optum, which uses tech and data to serve customers with optimized healthcare options. UnitedHealth Group says disability inclusion is a priority across the organization. For example, United operates a disability inclusion internship program, which attracts top talent with skills training, flexible schedule options and competitive pay with a path to permanent employment.
Novo Nordisk is an international company focused on chronic disease treatment, prevention and care access. It’s been around for upwards of a century and has thousands of employees working in locations across multiple countries on pharmaceuticals and treatment innovations to address type 1 and type 2 diabetes, growth hormone-related disorders, cardiovascular disease and other disease areas. Novo Nordisk’s workforce includes people with disabilities who can participate in the AllAbility employee resource group, which aims to promote disability awareness and education and foster “an authentic, open and honest environment” for community building.
Spectrum provides internet, TV, mobile and home phone service to millions of customers. Under the umbrella of its inclusivity efforts, Spectrum has multiple business resource groups for employee networking and development. That includes Spectrum Disability, which unites team members in advocating for important workplace accommodations. Spectrum also established a team specifically dedicated to enhancing accessibility among its products and services, with the goal of creating equitable experiences for both customers and employees.
Discover provides consumers with credit cards, online banking services, home loans and other financial products. The company has repeatedly received a 100 percent score on the Disability Equality Index in recognition of its focus on disability inclusion in the workplace. Discover’s nine employee resource groups include Strive for Disability Empowerment, which offers resources and support for team members who have disabilities and allies to the disability community.
Liberty Mutual is an international insurance company employing approximately 45,000 professionals across its operations. The company seeks to build “a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace,” and its Able@Liberty + Allies employee resources group focuses on fostering a supportive work culture for people with disabilities as well as family members and caregivers of people with disabilities. It brings team members together to promote awareness and has contributed to initiatives to make Liberty Mutual’s digital assets more accessible, for example, and identify opportunities to increase accessibility in physical workspaces.
Northwestern Mutual specializes in insurance and financial planning solutions, connecting its clients with advisors and other resources that are meant to set them up for a financially secure future. The company says it’s committed to “building an inspiring, inclusive culture where everyone can bring their best self to the workplace,” and that work is reflected in the company’s employee resource groups. Upwards of 2,000 Northwestern Mutual employees participate in those ERGs, which includes the disABILITY Alliance.
Block offers fintech solutions through its family of global brands: Square, Cash App, Spiral, Tidal and TBD. The company says “celebrating diversity and operating with fairness and equality” are foundations of its efforts to foster an inclusive work environment. Block hires team members with disabilities and aims to support them through employee resource groups and other initiatives. It has 14 ERGs with chapters across its global operations. That includes an employee-led group focused on promoting inclusion for people who are neurodivergent.
Comcast Advertising operates a trio of brands that offer technology solutions to help businesses streamline media buying and build effective ad campaigns. It’s part of Comcast NBCUniversal, which the National Organization on Disability named a 2023 Leading Disability Employer. That designation recognizes efforts throughout Comcast NBCUniversal to promote a diverse and accessible work culture through initiatives such as the MyAbilities employee resource group and internal training on disability inclusion.
Lowe’s is a retail company with more than 300,000 employees spread across its chain of home improvement stores in the United States. Because of its work to establish an inclusive job environment for people with disabilities, Lowe’s received a 100 percent score on the Disability Equality Index. The company aims to bring team members together for education and programming centered around diversity and inclusion. Lowe’s has committed to creating an inclusive culture that empowers people of all abilities.
Optimum provides internet, mobile and TV services to approximately 5 million customers across the United States. The company has made multiple appearances on the Best Places To Work for Disability Inclusion list produced through a partnership between Disability:IN and the American Association of People With Disabilities. Optimum seeks to demonstrate its commitment to diversity and inclusion through initiatives like developing affinity groups, which include an employee group dedicated to fostering a workplace community for people with disabilities.
CVS Health provides prescriptions, over-the-counter medications and retail health, wellness, beauty and personal care products. The company operates through a network of nearly 10,000 brick and mortar stores as well as digital storefronts. CVS Health employees can access the CapAbilities Colleague Resource Group, which provides coaching and networking services for employees with disabilities to empower them in the workplace.
Pfizer is a biopharmaceutical company focused on research and development for vaccines and therapies to address different types of cancer, chronic inflammatory diseases and other medical conditions. Pfizer’s online disability and neurodiversity hub explains how the company proactively works to create “a uniquely diverse workforce which includes strong disability and neurodiversity representation.” For example, the company provides assistive technologies like dictation software, accessible buildings, mentorship opportunities and remote work arrangements.
The Aerospace Corporation brings together professionals across various disciplines to develop technology and conduct research related to space. Its Aerospace Diversity Action Committee is composed of managers as well as representatives from The Aerospace Corporation's employee resource groups who make recommendations to the company’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Executive Diversity Council related to workplace inclusion. The committee includes members of the Aerospace Totally Adaptable Group, an employee resource group centered around disability inclusion.
PepsiCo is a multinational food and beverage corporation that oversees the manufacturing, production and distribution of many iconic food products, including the eponymous Pepsi family of products as well as Quaker Oats, Tropicana and Gatorade. The company advocates for disability accessibility, inclusion and equity through an initiative in partnership with Disability Solutions, which provides disability inclusion training to managers and promotes attracting and retaining employees with disabilities.
Grainger provides critical products to construction sites, building maintenance crews and repair teams in the industrial sector, serving 4.5 million customers across the world. Its services aim to create seamless operations across everything from building to janitorial work. Grainger has been recognized as a top-scoring company on the Disability Equality Index, or DEI, by Disability: IN, and a leading employer of people with disabilities by the National Organization on Disability. It offers workplace accommodations as well as a disability business resource group to help attract and develop talent across all backgrounds and experience levels.
The PNC Financial Services Group’s banking solutions cover checking and savings accounts, student loan refinancing, business loans and other offerings for consumers and business clients. Its employee business resource group for people with disabilities, which is known as PNC Enable, seeks to promote “an environment of understanding on behalf of those impacted by some form of disability.” Other inclusion efforts include creating an accessibility officer position to ensure inclusion for people with disabilities reaches every level of PNC and participating in various initiatives as part of National Disability Awareness Month.
Healthtech company firsthand provides support and care for people with mental illness. Covering both digital and in-person support through a network of guides and resources, firsthand is dedicated to community care and delivering wellness services to underserved populations. The company hires team members with both physical and mental health disabilities. In fact, a substantial portion of its employees bring lived experience with serious mental illness and/or substance use disorder.
John Deere manufactures agriculture and construction equipment in addition to providing its customers with software solutions and support services. The company says the goal of its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts is to ensure “every employee can make the greatest impact as their true self.” To support that commitment, John Deere has several employee resource groups, including ABLEd, which stands for advocacy benefiting leadership and employees touched by disabilities. The employee-led group serves as a network of support that engages in initiatives like lunch-and-learns and advocating for accessibility-focused workplace improvements.
AT&T offers services in wireless communications, data and internet, telephone and managed networking for organizations. As the employer of more than 160,000 people, over 7,000 of whom self-identify as disabled, AT&T has explicitly committed to diversity, equity and inclusion for people with disabilities. It maintains an employee resource group along with multiple partnerships to support employees with disabilities.
FirstBank is a financial services company that provides digital banking services for businesses and consumers, as well as serves its customers via physical branch locations in Colorado, Arizona and California. With an emphasis on bringing together team members who have “diverse skill sets, experiences and attributes,” FirstBank recruits through universities and offers internship programs with the goal of attracting a diverse candidate pool. The company also aims to proactively drive a positive and inclusive culture through its employee resource groups, which includes its Neurodiversity and Abilities community.
GSK is a biopharma company that makes vaccines and medications for the global market. The company’s origins date back to 1715, when it began as a local pharmacy in London. Today, it employs nearly 70,000 team members. As part of its DEIB efforts, GSK established the internal Disability Confidence Network, an employee resource group that pledges disability inclusion and workplace accessibility, along with its Global Disability Council. The company is also part of the Valuable 500, a network of global companies with a shared purpose of “accelerating disability inclusion through business.”
