ICAEW member Natalie Hiller ACA, Senior Associate in PwC’s Restructuring and Forensics team, has been named in this year’s Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 in recognition of her work as a disability changemaker.

The Disability Power 100 lists the 100 most influential disabled individuals and organisations in the UK. Public nominations are judged by a panel of 25 disabled champions, including inclusivity and accessibility consultant Dr Shani Dhanda, British Paralympic Association Chief Executive David Clarke and Elaine Boyd ACA, business professor and Deputy Lieutenant of Dunbartonshire. This year marks the third time that wheelchair-user Hiller has appeared on the list. 

Raising disability awareness

Hiller has worked at PwC for 10 years, training in audit and risk assurance, and for more than a decade she has devoted herself to tackling workplace stigma and raising the profile of disabled people’s experiences. 

As volunteer Co-Chair of PwC’s Disability Awareness Network (DAWN) for the past five years, she has played an instrumental role in building a strong community that champions and supports colleagues and raises disability awareness. 

“Networks like DAWN provide a space where disabled people, family members, friends and colleagues can come together to share ideas and feel like they belong. But it’s also about raising awareness more broadly across the profession,” Hiller explains.

DAWN provides peer support to around 1,100 members through a range of activities, including disability specific buddy groups, monthly newsletters, events, connections with other disability networks across the globe and collaboration with the PwC inclusion team on impactful projects. 

Challenging negative perceptions

The Disability Power 100 is very important in raising awareness of the achievements of disabled people and helping to challenge negative perceptions of disability that continue to present challenges for many disabled people in the workplace, Hiller says. 

“Investments in inclusion across the profession are helping people to get through the door in the first place. But from a career progression perspective, more work needs to be done to give disabled people fair opportunities to progress in their careers. I would love to see more disabled people in senior leadership positions, especially on the boards of FTSE 100 companies.”

Raising awareness of available support

Sharing stories, particularly professional achievements of disabled people, is helpful to challenging stereotypes, Hiller says. Similarly, raising awareness of the support that’s available – such as the government-funded Access to Work scheme – can help to overcome the misconception of the burden to business of making reasonable adjustments for disabled colleagues. 

Hiller says she feels very proud to be recognised in such a prestigious list: “I’ve never done the work for recognition. I do it because I’m passionate about improving opportunities for disabled people. The fact that I’ve been recognised in the business and finance category is important for me because I’m looking for inclusion across our profession.”