An accumulation of interpretative studies in a range of international contexts has considered gender, race and social class in accounting employment. However, no work has considered accounting firms’ attitudes towards employing disabled people. This omission is surprising given the passing of successive disability rights legislation in the United States since 1918 and the United Kingdom (UK) since 1944 and consequent changes in public expectations regarding equal employment opportunities for disabled people. 

This paper examines the UK accounting profession’s response to changes in disability legislation. Using asurvey administered to UK firms and an analysis of the Big Four firms’ 2003 UK annual reviews, we report that firms’ have a minimal understanding of disability, that disability is not a significant component of firms’ personnel policies, that firms lag behind other organizations in their attitudes to disability, and images of disability are wholly absent from firms’ annual reviews.

Despite legislative efforts, evidence pointing to increasing numbers of disabled people gaining degree level qualifications and the increased employment in general of disabled people, accounting firms’ consideration and inclusion of disabled people appears minimal. Despite the severe under-representation of disabled people in accounting employment, UK firms have made few visible attempts to comply with legislation or address the exclusion of disabled people. 

While countries other than the UK operate in different legislative regimes, and firms operating in these countries adopt distinct employment policies, we hope to have set some sort of agenda on disability within accounting firms and have modestly contributed to an under-researched area which we hope will be explored by others.