12 collage images of some of our Keynote Speaker and Panel Chair headshots: (Left to right) Kate Nash, Rain Newton-Smith, Jas Singh, Martha Lane Fox, Diane Lightfoot, Mark Hodgkinson, Katy Talikowska, Helen Cooke, Alex Mahon, Syreeta Brown, Marc Allera and Sara Weller CBE. Across the bottom of the image are eight partner logos: (Left to right) Business Disability Forum, Channel 4, Lloyds Banking Group, Scope, PurpleSpace, Valuable 500, Sara Weller CBE and ImpactMatch.
ActionAble 2025
On Wednesday, February 26th, 2025, ActionAble 2025 hosted the UK’s first-ever virtual conference featuring world-renowned practitioners dedicated to empowering businesses to build disability-inclusive action plans.
This virtual event, led by industry experts, provided attendees with everything they needed to build a practical, actionable plan to make 2025 a landmark year for disability inclusion in their businesses and across the UK. Spearheaded by Sara Weller CBE, the event was supported by partners including Business Disability Forum, Channel 4, Lloyds Banking Group, Scope, Valuable 500, and Purple Space, and was delivered by ImpactMatch.
2025 marked a time to take stock, 30 years on from the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. The event provided an opportunity for a renewed focus on positive action for greater inclusion throughout the year, as the sector prepared for the Valuable 500’s SYNC25 event in Tokyo on December 3rd/4th, 2025.
The ultimate goal of the event was to drive the creation of fully inclusive workplaces with fair representation and a zero engagement gap. It aimed to empower UK Boards of Companies to authentically represent the colleagues, customers, and communities they serve by supporting them in recruiting, retaining, and developing individuals with disabilities (or lived experience).
Delegates gained access to practical advice from leading organisations and developed tangible action plans to make disability inclusion a core part of their business strategies.
The details
When was it? The event took place on Wednesday, 26 February 2025, between 9:00 AM and 5:30 PM.
Where was it? The event was hosted virtually on ImpactMatch Rooms, our innovative virtual community platform designed to drive collective action and impact. This technology platform and event venue aimed to eliminate “Talk Shops” and accelerate social impact outcomes through dynamic and direct action.
Who is speaking? Our speaker line-up featured leading voices from across the disability inclusion community. These experts, innovators, and advocates shared their insights, experiences, and practical solutions to help attendees advance their inclusion efforts and drive meaningful change in their organisations. The full agenda and speaker line-up is available on the event page.
The ActionAble 2025 Planner is designed to help attendees navigate the summit, capture key insights, and track progress on disability inclusion within their organisations. Even though the event has concluded, the planner can still be used to guide which recordings to catch up on and which exhibitors to revisit, as their content and contact details remain available until the end of September.
The planner helps participants identify the most relevant sessions and exhibitors based on their organisation’s challenges and provides a structured way to track insights. It is available as a fillable Word file for attendees to download, customise, and keep, with all notes and reflections remaining completely private – ImpactMatch and its partners did not have access to any responses.
The event was structured around seven key areas of disability inclusion, following frameworks from the Business Disability Forum (BDF) and Valuable 500.
You can download the document by completing the following form.
Sara Weller
The ImpactMatch team are so pleased that we have had the opportunity to work with Sara and Vic and all the incredible partners on this crucial agenda for society and for the UK.
Despite the workplace becoming more diverse than ever, disability remains one of its last taboos. there is only 1 board member within the FTSE 100 that has disclosed a disability in company annual reporting.
The one boardroom member reported is Sara Weller, a non-executive director of BT, Chair of the Money and Pensions Service and an established business and public sector leader, who has lived with progressive multiple sclerosis for 15 years.
Sara, who is spearheading ActionAble, says:
This event is about driving real action and impact not words. Talking about diversity only gets you so far. Our aim is to equip businesses with the tools and support they need to transform the workplace. I am amazed how all these leading organisations are joining forces for one day of action, to give CEOs and their teams the tools to make 2025 a year to step-change disability inclusion across the UK….next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the Disability Discrimination Act. It is a pioneering moment but, in the business world, there needs to be a renewed sense of urgency to provide the right frameworks to empower people with a disability and help their places of work become more representative of wider society.
IMPACTMATCH
ImpactMatch’s mission is to support organisations and impact driven leaders to accelerate social impact at scale, which is one of the key reasons we’re so proud to be one of the Co-Founders and Delivery Partner for ActionAble 2025.
This landmark campaign unites some of the UK’s most prominent businesses and respected leaders to address disability exclusion in the workplace.
Since its inception, we’ve collaborated closely with the wonderful Sara Weller CBE who is spearheading the campaign alongside ActionAble 2025 amazing partners to implement a strategy that supports businesses across the UK.
ImpactMatch are managing the approach, delivery and marketing to ensure an impactful experience. Central to ActionAble 2025 is the impact led strategy and the use of ImpactMatch Rooms, our innovative virtual community platform
For ActionAble 2025 we also provide our #ImpactMatchRooms proposition including a technology platform and event venue, aimed at eliminating “Talk Shops” and accelerating social impact outcomes from dynamic and direct action.