TIME: Disabled Workers Deserve More Than Subminimum Wage

Keely Cat-Wells is a 2024 Presidential Leadership Scholar and the Co-Founder and CEO of Making Space and Making Space Media, an organization that provides the necessary resources and opportunities for disabled people to create meaningful careers and become influential leaders. She shares her dedication to advancing the rights of disabled people and how the Presidential Leadership Scholars Program impacted her ability to lead and collaborate in meaningful ways.

Keely Cat-Wells, the founder of Making Space, a talent acquisition platform to help companies connect with workers who have disabilities, said that comments like Mr. Trump’s damage a community that is already severely underrepresented in the work force. People with disabilities are twice as likely to be unemployed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

When I became Disabled in my late teens and started searching for work, I was confronted with barriers including disability discrimination, inaccessible environments, and attitudinal biases. I lost a job simply because a no-cost adaptation was rejected. My story isn’t unique. And it’s just one example of how systemic barriers prevent Disabled people from accessing meaningful employment.

Talent acquisition platform Making Space, founded in 2023 by noted disability activist Keely Cat-Wells, announced today that it has closed on an oversubscribed $2 million pre-seed round led by Beta Boom.

As a Disabled person, I measure my energy strategically, evaluating events and opportunities with a heightened discernment. I try to approach managing my energy like my finances, investing it thoughtfully and intentionally, aiming for a meaningful return on investment. This often means researching who will be there, ensuring that my efforts are directed toward connections and opportunities that truly matter.

Reese Witherspoon‘s Hello Sunshine has tied with Making Space Media, the TV and film producer that places disabled voices front and center. The Candle Media-backed outfit has struck a first-look deal with Making Space for unscripted content, which will “shine a light on the lived experience of the world’s largest and yet most overlooked and misrepresented community on the planet.” Several developments are underway and first projects will be announced soon, according to the pair. Making Space Media is a division of Making Space and is run by TV presenter and disability rights advocate Sophie Morgan, and entrepreneur and activist Keely Cat-Wells. Disability in TV has been in the spotlight of late and the likes of His Dark Materials scribe Jack Thorne have slammed the industry’s treatment of the minority over the past couple of years.

I was not believed by the health system, I was dying while they constantly told me I "looked fine." It took dozens of doctors, multiple hospitals, and many years before I was diagnosed and given the life-saving treatment I needed. When I came to the US, it became clear that as a disabled person, as someone who is chronically ill, I am not broken or the issue — it is society that is fragmented, and that it is not just a national problem, it is a global one.

Last year, Cat-Wells sold C Talent to Whalar in a multimillion-dollar deal that marked the largest investment ever in disabled talent within the creator industry. Since then, her focus has been on Making Space, a talent acquisition and learning experience platform for disabled individuals from low income or traditionally underrepresented communities. “When budgets get cut and times get hard, disability-specific programs are the first to be deprioritized,” Cat-Wells explains.

“Hire disabled people, fund disabled people, let disabled people lead and learn from disabled people's lived experience. But also do your own research on disability and learn from the work that has already been done within the disability justice movement,” she said.

Keely Cat-Wells has been a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, an advisory board member on Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation and has visited the White House as a participant in the first Mental Health Youth Action Forum. Last year her talent agency, C Talent, was acquired by Whalar in a deal that’s making history as “one of the largest investments ever made in Disabled talent within the creator industry,” according to her profile on RollingStone Culture Council.