# @elilillyco on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn69NlvMJKC
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/64294489-elilillyco-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/2db2c10be2.jpg
- **Posted:** 2023-01-27T14:00:43.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Eli Lilly and Company (@elilillyco) — https://gondola.cc/elilillyco

## Caption

#WeAreLilly 37,000 global employees #PoweredbyPurpose

Matthew Dwyer was 32 when he stopped driving a car, 36 when he stopped reading physical documents, and for the last 12 years, has been legally blind. Dwyer has retinitis pigmentosa, a rare genetic disorder that affects the retina's ability to respond to light.

"I can perceive a very bright light source, but I can't see a person sitting in front of me. My other senses compensate, and I'm acutely and differently aware of my environment," said Dwyer, a Paris resident who works in Lilly’s Corporate Responsibility group. He’s keenly aware of the barriers of others. "I'm passionate about taking inclusion and making it a business reality, something that's tangible."

"There had been many moments in my life when I should have realized I couldn't see like everybody else. As a student, I'd go out to nightclubs, and spend hours talking to a potted plant," he laughs. “A self-deprecating sense of humor is essential for a person with a disability.”

Dwyer is a self-professed science nerd who grew up in the London suburbs. He studied chemistry at Sheffield University in the UK and received his MBA from the Hautes Etudes de Commerce in Paris. He began in finance at Lilly France, he went on to marketing, pricing and commercial management roles in Paris and the U.S.

Removing barriers is near to his heart — in fact, with his sight-impaired colleague Darren Rowan, he hosts Lilly’s “Removing Barriers” internal podcast. In 2015, the pair started Lilly's EnAble employee resource group, which helps embed disability inclusion in our processes and helps employees get the accommodations they require.

Being inclusive also means being in tune with the disabilities of our patients. "We know diabetes is one of the leading causes of sight loss. As we design our devices, we consider the patient experience. Our injectable diabetes medication pen has an audible click to indicate the medication was injected correctly," he explained. "Our websites are designed so that if I'm using screen reader technology, I can have the article read to me and patients can get the same access to information about their medication."

Matthew Dwyer, Paris

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## Tags

poweredbypurpose, wearelilly

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