“You can’t feel included if you can’t get in…but the diversity & inclusion industry doesn’t understand disability discrimination – it doesn’t even want to talk about it!
Susan Scott-Parker OBE delivers no-nonsense, high-impact sessions that challenge conventional thinking and drive meaningful action with her candid, ‘truth-to-vested interests’ approach. She has presented to the UN’s ILO Business and Disability Network (ILOGBDN), The European Commission, The UN Human Rights Council: as well as business leaders and their networks in Dubai, Riyadh, Toronto, London, Nairobi, Sydney, Shanghai…..to name but a few.
Susan is often described as an internationally recognised thought-leader, driving disability equality by mobilising the power of business as valued stakeholders and potential allies of people with disabilities. Throughout her career, she has challenged assumptions regarding both disability and the private sector, championing the potential of responsible business to adapt respectfully to human realities — as they learn directly from and with disabled people.
Through her consultancy, Scott-Parker International, she founded the volunteer-led “Disability Ethical? AI” campaign and mentors a global network of social and business innovators: this deep focus on the impact of Artificial Intelligence on disability equality has made Susan a leading authority in the ethical implications of AI in the workplace and in labour markets worldwide
She pioneered the world’s first ‘business disability network,’ now BDF (UK), and continues to support the global growth of similar business led organisations working to the mutual benefit of business and people with disabilities. Susan coined the concept and language of ‘Disability Confidence’ over 20 years ago, to start a new conversation with business — a term and a message that has resonated worldwide. She also serves as an international Ambassador for Zero Project, Face Equality International, and Three Talents Bridge Academies, and represents business on the Steering Group of GLAD, the global network of leading International development organisations, including UN agencies and the World Bank , all committed to disability inclusive development.
In 2024 alone, she has presented to the National AI Advisory Council to the White House; delivered key insights on AI governance at the EU CPDP Conference hosted by EY; and shared groundbreaking ideas at The Zero Project Global Conference, Vienna on the potential impact of AI on disability equality. Her expertise has also been sought by the USA Secretary of Commerce, where Susan highlighted the urgent need for AI and Equality regulators to ‘up their game’ if they are to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities.
As the founder of Business Disability International (BDI) – with startup investment from Barclays, GSK and Infosys = Susan works to bridge the deeply unhelpful gap between people in business and people with disabilities. Susan speaks at, connects and supports a diverse range of organisations and initiatives, including G3ICT; GIZ, Germany’s International Development Agency; the ILO GBDN; MyAbility and its business disability networks in the German speaking region; PurpleSpace and the PurpleLightUp (now Positively Purple) movement; and the Valuable 500.
She is especially proud of her role as Strategist and Content Architect of the ILO GBDN’s unique Self-Assessment, which helps businesses in any and every jurisdiction define and deliver best practice, as they benchmark their performance against the universal principles that shape the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and ILO Labour Standards.
As a Canadian who has long called London home, Susan was honoured to receive the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Millennium Honours List. She holds an Honorary Doctorate from Bradford University and is particularly pleased that the Canadian University Women’s Association has established the Scott-Parker Scholarship Fund to assist women undergraduates with disabilities at Carleton University, her alma mater.
Her publications include:
- The ILO Global business Disability Network Self-assessment – Strategist and Content Architect
- Towards Trustworthy Artificial Intelligent Systems – editors Maria Isabel Aldinhas Ferreira; Mohammad Osman Tokhi – article: Recruitment AI Has a Disability Problem: Anticipating and Mitigating Unfair Automated Hiring Decisions Selin E Nugent Susan Scott-Parker, Springer Link
- Moving from Ad Hoc to Streamlined Efficiency The Lloyds Banking Group Case study workplace adjsutments 2014 BDF
- Managing Difficult Conversations, BDF
- Unlocking Potential – The new disability Business case, EFD, with Simon Zadek (2000)
