Legally blind, Dr Theresa Ruig encourages board accessibility to leverage unique insights
Dr. Theresa Ruig, recipient of the Jo Fisher Future Board Scholarship, is bringing her lived experience and professional expertise to reshape board leadership.
Dr Theresa Ruig’s experience of being totally blind presents an interesting conundrum. On one hand, her disability is highly visible to people and sometimes means she is seen only one-dimensionally. On the other, the disability can make her equally invisible, contingent on people’s tendencies to make assumptions about the capability and expertise of people living with disability.
For Dr Ruig, the Jo Fisher Future Board Scholarship at Future Leadership arrived at a pivotal moment in her career journey. At a time of professional transition, when she was reflecting on her next steps and exploring various contract roles and professional development opportunities, the scholarship presented itself as an ideal pathway to meaningful impact.
“I wasn’t actively looking for it, but it came across my desk, so to speak,” Ruig explains. “I was at a time of career transition, asking where I wanted to go next. I knew that I was ready to bring my heightened experience of problem solving, navigating complexity, and thinking from outside the system to the fore. People really do underestimate the extraordinary capacity of people living with diverse ability and the value our perspectives can bring to the disrupted world of work.”
Beyond Lived Experience
What makes Ruig’s perspective particularly valuable in the boardroom is her ability to draw on personal, professional and societal insights. As someone who is blind, she previously served on boards within the blindness sector, but her aspirations reach much further.
“I’d had previous board roles, but not for many years, and that was specifically in the blindness sector,” she shares. “As someone who’s blind, I was able to utilise my lived experience, but to me, I thought, no I have so much more to give, I want to go beyond that.”
Ruig’s vision for her board service transcends representation. She sees an opportunity to bring unique perspectives to organisations and sectors where disability awareness might be limited, and accessibility an underutilised benefit.
“I want to be able to take my lived experience, my understanding of disability, and the unique perspectives that gives me to expose that to other boards and other sectors where perhaps that’s not an area they’d necessarily been exposed to,” she explains.
For Ruig, board service is not just about representation—it’s about an evolution in how leadership potential is perceived.
“I’m not looking to fill a seat or tick a box, I’m looking to shift mindsets. I want to challenge how we think about leadership, capability, and contribution. Disability, in my view, is not a deficit but a different lens through which to lead. My presence on a board is not the end goal, it’s a signal that we are evolving towards governance that truly reflects the diversity of our society.”
She is a passionate advocate for encouraging greater accessibility and inclusion and believes they should not be seen as compliance obligations, but as strategic opportunities for innovation and excellence.
Commenting on the DEI backlash we are currently seeing come from the United States political rhetoric, Ruig calmly insists that DEI efforts must be intrinsically connected to business value, not simply moral value. Accessibility, after all, applies to everyone. It’s about creating environments where all voices can be heard, valued, and acted upon.
“True inclusion isn’t just about inviting people to the table—it’s about redesigning the table entirely. Sometimes, the most valuable contributions come from those who have had to navigate systems not built for them in the first place.”
Professional Development Journey
The path to this scholarship wasn’t direct. Ruig had taken time away from the traditional workforce to determine her next career move, during which she engaged in contract work while completing a social impact fellowship as part of her professional development.
This combination of practical experience and formal training positioned her perfectly for the Jo Fisher Future Board Scholarship, which aims to develop diverse leadership talent for board positions.
In reviewing the many candidates for the scholarship, Founding Director Jo Fisher commented, “I think Theresa is an outstanding candidate. She will be wonderful to work with, and will benefit immensely from the coaching and AICD course on her journey to impact.”
Looking Ahead
As Ruig prepares to apply her unique combination of lived experience and professional expertise in new board environments, she represents exactly what the Jo Fisher Future Board Scholarship seeks to promote: leadership that brings fresh perspectives and inclusive thinking to governance and strategic decision-making.
Through this opportunity, Ruig hopes to demonstrate how diverse viewpoints strengthen boards and ultimately lead to more thoughtful, inclusive, and effective organisations.
The Jo Fisher Future Board Scholarship at Future Leadership identifies and supports emerging leaders from diverse backgrounds, preparing them for impactful board service across various sectors.
