Only 12 of 100 FTSE Firms Publish Disability Data

Only 12 of the FTSE 100's companies publish data on disability representation in their workforce — a figure unchanged since 2021 — leaving 88 of Britain's largest listed employers without a public baseline on the proportion of staff who identify as disabled or have a long-term health condition. That is the central finding of ActionAble's Disability Index 2026 FTSE 100 report, released by the movement campaigning for improved disability inclusion.

Why does the stalled number matter?

The flatline is not a story of companies trying and failing; it is a story of attrition. Of the companies that reported representation data five years ago, only four continue to do so today. Most large employers have been slow to implement disability reporting at all, according to the Index.

ActionAble warns that this leaves companies unprepared for mandatory disability pay gap reporting, which the UK government has committed to introducing for large employers alongside ethnicity pay gap reporting — though no official timeline exists yet.

What is at stake for employers and workers?

A quarter of Britons now report a disability, so the demographics of the labour market and the customer base have shifted. ActionAble argues that understanding disability has become part of understanding the market: companies that fail to consider disabled customers risk missing out on new business, while employers without visibility into their own workforce risk losing talent to competitors that do measure.

Sara Weller, co-founder of ActionAble and the only FTSE 100 board director identified by the Index as publicly declaring a disability, said: "Disability inclusion is the business equivalent of an open goal. Businesses are rethinking their talent strategies in a post-AI world. Growth is the missing link in many business plans. Greater inclusion of people with disabilities helps attract and retain new talent with new ways of thinking."

She added that companies that understand the roughly one-in-four customers who are disabled "will build loyalty amongst a consistently underserved customer group".

How should companies start?

The Index includes case studies from BT, HSBC, Centrica, SSE and Autotrader, each taking different approaches to increasing transparency, building employee trust, improving declaration rates and embedding disability inclusion into corporate strategy.

ActionAble recommends a principle of "progress not perfection": start measuring and publishing data now, learn from it and improve over time, rather than waiting until every element of reporting is complete.

"Boards cannot manage what they cannot see," Weller said. "You do not need perfect data to make a start. You need leadership, transparency and a willingness to learn."

What happens next?

ActionAble is encouraging businesses to begin reporting before regulation is announced. Weller said the objective is not "to name and shame businesses or pretend there is a simple solution", but noted that "the overall picture has barely moved in five years".

She called on the government to provide clarity around mandatory reporting and on boards to start preparing, framing better data as the route to what ActionAble calls the "Disability Dividend" — more inclusive businesses built on evidence rather than guesswork.