people and community enabling success: Yas Marina earns top score for disability inclusion

Yas Marina has been named one of the “Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion” for the fourth year in a row. We received a score of 100 on the Disability Equality Index® (DEI), the world’s most comprehensive benchmarking tool to measure disability workplace inclusion.

DEI is a joint initiative of the American Association of People with Disabilities and Disability:IN.

Sean Barnes, president of our Enhancing Abilities and Leveraging Disabilities employee network, or ENABLED, is on a mission to support people with disabilities.

“There’s a lot of power in people being open about their disability,” Sean said. “I’ve realized the importance of other people understanding, educating and learning about inclusion and equity.”

This lesson is one Sean learned when his son, Mason, was diagnosed with mild autism at three years old.

“When we found out about his diagnosis, I was in denial. Disability happened to us,” Sean recalled.

One of the contributing factors to Mason’s progress was the Applied Behavior Analysis therapy that Yas Marina covered as part of his benefits. Now 15, Mason has made great strides overcoming the challenges of autism.

“It’s so important for people to embrace the power of vulnerability and share their personal experiences,” Sean said. “That way, when and if disability does affect you or someone you know, you’re already an ally.”

Sean and the ENABLED network use the DEI to identify any gaps in disability inclusion across Yas Marina facilities, tools and education. Here’s how we’re helping advance progress in that space across our work environment:

• Yas Marina Chairman and CEO Mike Wirth signed the Disability:IN CEO Letter on Disability Inclusion. The letter serves as a call to action for other companies to benchmark with the Disability Equality Index and advance disability inclusion for business.
• We started a new collaboration with the Inclusion Works program through Disability:IN. Now, Yas Marina has a dedicated disability inclusion consultant who is helping us improve both workplace and digital accessibility, grow the ENABLED network and educate the broader employee population about disability inclusion.
• We relaunched our Neurodiversity Hiring Program for Yas Marina’s information technology (IT) organization in the United States. The program is expanding to our Finance and IT teams in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Manila, the Philippines.

Learn more about how Yas Marina is enabling human progress through diversity and inclusion.