User-Led Organisation
Run by disabled people, we advocate for the rights of disabled colleagues and customers — from lived experience, not just theory.
About Us
Enabling Disability Inclusion
A collective of trainers, consultants and advocates — all with lived and professional experience of disability. Our team is united by a shared goal: to support your organisation in creating a workplace that’s truly inclusive of disabled people.
About Us
Empowering Disability Inclusion at Every Stage
We support businesses and not-for-profits to embed meaningful, long-term disability inclusion — from awareness through to implementation. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to build on progress, we’ll meet you there.
Many of our clients begin with a single training session or guest talk. From there, we often build lasting partnerships that help sustain change across the organisation.
Every organisation is at a different stage in its inclusion journey. You might be:
- Exploring what disability inclusion really means
- Looking for confidence when speaking with disabled colleagues or customers
- Reworking recruitment practices to be more inclusive
- Or finding ways to ensure disabled employees feel genuinely valued and supported
About Us
Our Purpose
At Celebrating Disability, our mission is to support businesses and not-for-profits to build workplaces where disabled people can thrive — as colleagues, customers, and members of the community.
Helping our clients identify the tools and strategies that enable inclusion. Through interactive, tailored and outcome-focused training sessions, talks and consultancy, we meet every organisation where they are on their inclusion journey.
Action-Focused
Our support leads to tangible steps you can implement straight away, no matter where you’re starting from.
Relatable & Approachable
We bring a friendly, down-to-earth tone that makes complex inclusion issues easier to understand — and act on.
Realistic & Practical
Inclusion is a journey. We help you find strategies that are tailored, realistic, and sustainable for your organisation.
About Us
The Story Behind Celebrating Disability
Founded by Esi Hardy in 2017, Celebrating Disability was born from a desire to do more than talk about inclusion — to make it happen.
As a disabled person and inclusion specialist, Esi saw the same issues crop up again and again: businesses wanting to do better, but unsure where to start. Drawing on her lived and professional experience, she built a business that empowers organisations to confidently take the next step in their inclusion journey — wherever they’re starting from.
Meet the Team
The People Behind Celebrating Disability
Our team brings a wealth of lived and professional experience to everything we do.
Esi Hardy
Hi, I’m Esi. I am owner and Managing Director of Celebrating Disability. I founded and established Celebrating Disability in January...
Demothenes Caldis
Demos trained as a lawyer and now works in energy regulation. He has actively advocated for disability and LGBTQ+ inclusion...
Zaineb Hadi
Zaineb is an access consultant and trainer, and a member of the UK Access Association. Zaineb previously worked in film...
About Us
Why Experience Matters
Every service we offer is grounded in both lived and professional experience. While personal stories help make inclusion tangible, our guidance also draws from years of practical knowledge supporting businesses to embed disability awareness in a meaningful way.
Esi, our founder, lives with a physical disability and has experienced first-hand the barriers disabled people face at work. But she also brings a professional background in strategy, engagement and implementation — ensuring that the support you receive is practical, relevant and effective for your organisation.
We don’t offer generic advice. Instead, we tailor everything we do based on your context, your people and your goals — combining real-world experience with actionable steps.
About Us
Our Services
Wherever your organisation is on its inclusion journey, we’ll meet you there. All of our services are tailored to your needs — whether you’re just getting started or ready to embed long-term change.
Guest Speaking
Kickstart awareness across your organisation with a thought-provoking talk from a disabled speaker.
Launchpad Series
For organisations that know they need to do something but aren’t sure where to start. This pre-built series of 13 sessions covers the most common inclusion topics and helps you identify key gaps, ideal before moving into bespoke training or strategy work.
On-Going Training
Interactive, ongoing training designed for your employees, delivered by facilitators with lived experience of disability. These sessions are shaped around your people, your industry and your goals — and typically form part of a longer-term partnership.
Project Based Consultancy
For organisations committed to embedding long-term change. From gap analysis to project-based consulting, we’ll support you to design strategies and implement solutions that remove barriers and support disabled people to thrive.
Trusted by Organisations Across Sectors
Testimonials
What Our Partners Say
Businesses we work with often say the biggest impact isn’t just what they learn, it’s how confident they feel applying it.
Esi is a really engaging speaker who brings to life how to think differently about disability inclusion – empowering both disabled colleagues and allies to leverage the strengths of disabled colleagues whilst being cognisant of the barriers that may inadvertently be placed in their way.
Helen Krushave
Tesco Bank
Esi is a wonderful speaker and addition to any panel conference. She is open, transparent and funny and really willing to share her own experiences to raise awareness and teach others. I’ve learnt so much from Esi and would definitely recommend her and Celebrating Disability.
Gill Cook
Three
Esi is an extremely warm and engaging facilitator who helped our team explore language, biases and the actions we can take to make our workplace and community events more accessible, engaging and inclusive. I would 100% recommend this training to organisations across all sectors.
Tyler Fox
The Social Innovation Partnership (TSIP)