Shani Dhanda

Disability Inclusion & Accessibility Specialist, Social Entrepreneur and Broadcaster.

Shani is one of the UK’s most influential disabled people and BBC’s 100 Women laureate of 2020. She helps businesses and brands break barriers and become more inclusive and accessible for their disabled employees and customers.

As a South Asian woman who experiences disability, Shani has taken the change she wants to create in the world into her own hands. Her intersectional activism has led to challenging social inequality globally through entrepreneurship, and she is the founder of Diversability, the Asian Woman Festival and the Asian Disability Network.

As a subject matter expert, she holds eight executive and advisory roles and is an ambassador for five national disability organisations. She brings the perspectives of disabled people and their organisations to policy development for the Government’s Disability Unit.

Shani is a presenter on Rip off Britain, a guest panellist on Loose Women and contributes to many other daytime and news programmes, and has also been in Eastenders. She is a first-wave LinkedIn Changemaker and was featured in LinkedIn’s first-ever UK ad campaign across digital, print and radio channels with over 17 million views and ranked within the top 0.09% of most influential LinkedIn members in the UK.

Having spoken at over 250 conferences and companies worldwide, including the United Nations, World Expos, and TEDx, Shani has shared speaking stages with Michelle Obama and Hilary Clinton.

Shani has been recognised with over twenty-three awards for her inclusion and activism work, including being named as one of the six most influential women in the new world of work, one of the most influential women in leadership and a world-leading changemaker.