Chaeli Mycroft: Changing the Conversation Around Disability
‘Perspectives’ is a joint project of The Beautiful Truth and Leaders on Purpose. During the 6th annual Leaders on Purpose CEO Summit in September 2023, The Beautiful Truth conducted interviews with influential corporate leaders and thought leaders. The goal was to gain insight into their perspectives on purposeful business and answer the question: what actions should our businesses take in the current historical context?
Chaeli Mycroft is the Co-founder and Global Ambassador of The Chaeli Campaign & Chaeli Foundation USA. She is a South African ability activist with cerebral palsy and winner of the International Children’s Peace Prize in 2011.
“Disabled people make up 15% of the population, which is a good starting point for making a really big impact.”
Chaeli Mycroft
What is the main issue with how disability is approached today?
Often when we talk about inclusivity, we talk about disability for a few seconds before moving on to talk about other oppressed groups. I think that recognising the bias in industry and including disabled people will be a game changer across the board.
Disabled people make up 15% of the population, which is a good starting point for making a really big impact. It makes business sense to include more people, and it makes economic sense to empower more people.
People are supposed to be together. We’re designed that way. The pandemic taught us that people need people, and that lesson has shown us that we need to make big decisions about where to take business, social enterprise and civil society.
Your foundation impacts the lives of 7,000 people annually – what’s your mission?
We’ve moulded our work around the idea that disabled people deserve everything that non-disabled people get without question. We focus on a depth of impact rather than mass scaling of programmes, helping empower people and their families.
When did you know you wanted to dedicate your life to championing disabled people?
I am a lifelong disabled person. Once you know your purpose, it’s easy to make the right decisions. I found my purpose at nine years old when I fundraised to buy an electric wheelchair, and living out the last 20 years in this way has been a really powerful journey and has given me a unique perspective. It has also led to other people finding powerful things within themselves.
“Every decision you make has a real-world impact on people who have complex, nuanced, complicated lives.”
Chaeli Mycroft
How can businesses support disabled people?
Recognise each person’s humanity. When we do that as leaders, it is much harder to ignore an individual’s needs. It also makes it harder to make decisions that are only beneficial to some. Every decision you make has a real-world impact on people who have complex, nuanced, complicated lives.
We need a shift in the way the world views disabled people to happen now. We’ve been having the same conversations for 20 years, and there is so much to gain from taking action. We need to build a robust environment to have meaningful conversations about how powerful disabled people are when we are given the opportunity – because we’re ready.
