FleishmanHillard Fishburn associate content director, Christine Lydon joins OMD EMEA’s executive director of communications and marketing Vicky Bloyce, as co-chair of the Omnicom Open DisAbility steering group.
It’s reported that there are 2.7m working–age adults in the UK with a disability and that those with a disability are understood to be more than twice as likely to be unemployed as those without. Whilst deeper investigation could offer many reasons why they might be out of work, prejudice in the workplace keeping out those that are trying to work, should not be a reason.
To combat this, the steering group pledge to ensure anyone with a disability feels welcome, safe and able to work at any of Omnicom’s UK agencies. For the next 12-months of their appointment as co-chairs, Christine and Vicky will be pushing to help put inclusion of those with disabilities on the board agenda.
Christine says that she sees disability as a human rights issue and is keen to increase awareness and encourage more dialogue on the subject.
“Experiencing a life-threatening illness opened my eyes to the difficulties so many of us face and I am determined to use my role to help provide the support to ensure our agencies become truly inclusive of persons with disabilities.”
Keep up to date with the Omnicom Open DisAbility initiative here.
