In a terrible indictment on disability inclusion in leadership and governance roles, across Australia's 300 largest companies, not a single director openly identifies as living with disability. Zero. And it's been that way for years. In this powerful episode of Community Matters, host Nicky Sloan sits down with Krystal Tritton, CEO of disability provider roundsquared, who describes this as “a horrible statistic, that has gone unchecked for so long”. As a busy executive who is totally blind Krystal brings a critically important perspective of lived experience to this significant issue of representation. Krystal and Nicky unpack why disability representation is unseen or non-existent at the highest levels of Australian leadership, and just what that is costing us all. The employment gap tells the story with only 53% of people with disability employed compared to 82% without.  This is a chasm that hasn't budged significantly in two decades, despite billions in government funding. The issue isn't ability; it's a society that frames disability through a lens of inability rather than possibility. “Our disability isn’t our identity. It’s part of us but it’s not who we are” explains Krystal. Having worked in the sector for 23 years, she explains that while the community sector is making inroads to disability representation at leadership levels, this is not happening in the corporate sector. “I would like to see people sitting at the board of Macquarie Bank, Coles, Woolies, Myers” she says as she explains how these companies are missing out on the representation of a huge cross section of their customer base. The ripple effects are profound. When a member of their advocacy group told Krystal, "Because you're a CEO, I see that I could be too," it clarified the power of representation. But that's exactly what's missing from Australia's ASX 300 boardrooms, leading to retailers designing inaccessible stores or tech companies designing solutions that don't work for everyone. Krystal's call to action is clear: set standards for employers for disability representation and inclusion with real jobs at real wages, embed a standard of experiential disability education as part of every higher education course engaging and paying people with disability to deliver, ask people with disability what they need and actually listen, and partner and recognise organisations doing it right. This conversation will challenge everything you thought you knew about disability and leadership. Australia’s boardrooms are missing out and it’s time they caught up.Links and Resources:·         2025 AICD Board Diversity Index·         roundsquared websiteAcknowledgement of Country Community Industry Group' podcast is recorded on beautiful Dharawal Country, and we acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, and their Elders. We acknowledge and respect their continuing culture, the world’s oldest living culture, and the contribution they make to the life of this region and our country. We acknowledge that we live and work on Aboriginal land and recognise the strength, resilience and capacity of Aboriginal people. Music Credit:"Jarvic 8" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

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