6. Conclusions and next steps

The findings from interviews and further research generated from this work show that there is still a long way to go for civil society around both disability leadership and disability inclusion in general. The lack of quantitative data available shows that we need more data, research and discussion if we are going to help civil society live up to its values and benefit from the expertise of disabled people.

The actions for civil society in this report aim to provide the foundations for the sector to grow and become more inclusive, but also providing the skills and information to truly hold the sector to account for the gap between its values and its practice. The recommendations for ACEVO recognise the central role it can play in helping disabled leaders to flourish.

We have heard and seen that ACEVO’s offer and ability to connect and share learning has great potential in supporting and developing disabled leaders. The existing work should be capitalised upon so that that more people understand both ACEVO’s offer and disabled leaders’ potential.

At the outset of this project COVID-19 was a virtually unknown term. We have seen during the progression of this project that the impact of the pandemic on civil society is going to be shaping things for a long time to come. However, the inability to carry on business as normal is an opportunity to build back better, in a way that supports and learns from disabled people’s leadership. ACEVO has an opportunity to be at the forefront of this effort.

6.1 Acknowledgements

Thank you to all of the disabled leaders and ACEVO staff and trustees who gave their time to share their stories and ideas for this research. Thank you particularly to Kristiana Wrixon and Maisie Hubert for their ongoing support, advice and suggestions, and to ACEVO for commissioning this work.