Kelly Gordon, 35, and Emma Gardner, 41, founded recruitment agency With Not For to help disabled people get into work. They are desperate to see change, and help people to work in creative spaces

Meet the women on a mission to make a big difference to the lives of disabled people across Britain.

Kelly Gordon, 35, and Emma Gardner, 41, joined forces to found creative recruitment agency With Not For - a company that exclusively represents disabled talent. From the beginning they had a very clear vision of what they wanted to do in mind - to improve the representation of disabled people working in creative roles, and to advocate for inclusivity and diversity for disabled individuals within the recruitment space.

The argument for change in recruitment is compelling given that statistics from disability charity Scope UK states the employment rate of disabled people is 53% compared to 82% of non-disabled people. As well as this, disabled people are almost twice as likely to be unemployed as non-disabled people, and three times as likely to be economically inactive.

This disparity is particularly evident in creative roles where TV research conducted by Nielson found 34% of people with disabilities surveyed said they felt "under-represented in media", and half of them claimed they were "inaccurately represented". Additionally, one UK report illustrated that only 3% of TV ads featured people with disabilities.

Drawing from their own personal experiences, Kelly and Emma are paving the way for others by showing businesses how to adapt old and create new ways to include disabled people. By implementing a few small changes, they demonstrate work can be accessible to anyone.

This in particular resonates with With Not For co-founder, Kelly, who as a disabled person has had to advocate for herself from as early as her school days, and who spent a lot of her career fighting to prove disabled people can work and thrive within big industries.

With Not For was founded in 2020 in the middle of Covid, as Kelly and Emma both worked largely within the creative industry - Emma as managing partner of advertising agency, Elvis, and Kelly as a serial entrepreneur and Creative Director.

Kelly said: "As a disabled entrepreneur that has worked across multiple industries, I’ve often faced negative attitudes when it comes to people's expectations of what I could, and should do as a disabled women in business.

"We know (and now represent) so many incredible, creative and successful disabled people, so it was an important mission of ours to platform these voices, and ultimately further showcase their work while at the same time using training and content to change the sometimes negative attitudes towards disability in the workplace.

"We have learnt that we will often be approached to 'rubber stamp' or approve campaigns once they have been created without community involvement. This is a huge no for us, and something that we’ve had to be quite firm with as it goes against our whole ethos as a company.

"When we work with a client we often train them at the same time around interaction, representation and intention. We also research all of our projects at length with a diverse group of researchers to ensure that the projects are being made with and not for the community."

Over the last few years, the company has represented a wide range of talent - from grassroots to established talent which are successful in their own right. They say the people they help the most are the agencies and the employers that they train and introduce talent to.

Both Kelly and Emma said they are "proud" to have created thought-provoking work, and feel they have really helped to start big conversations.

Kelly explained: "Businesses need to understand that including disability within their companies from the hiring process to long term employment and retention leads to a productive and diverse workforce. It is so important that we consider disability when we think about general diversity, and that we ensure the opinions of disabled people are heard.

"As a business being flexible and having open communication are good places to start, when companies realise that all people have access needs whether they are disabled or not, it is really game-changing and it becomes a great environment for all employees to thrive."

When it comes to how things are changing, Kelly said the opportunities did alter after the pandemic when people started to "re-think" what work meant. Despite this, she also noted we are all slowly "defaulting back to in office working", and this had led the team to hearing that some people's flexible contracts have been revoked in favour of in-office working.

"This is a step backwards that requires attention as remaining flexible means that job opportunities are kept open to not only people who need or prefer flexible work, but also those who live in different territories," added Kelly.

"Obviously in the future we are hoping for imperative things like equity for disabled people and accessibility to be standard. We want everyone to be able to access the same opportunities without it being treated like a tick boxing exercise.

"Ultimately we hope that there is better authentic representation of disability within the media and advertising industries, which will happen the more disabled people are working in the industry to tell their own stories. This way the perception of disability might finally be altered within society."