Motivation | Breakthrough
A crusade for equality
AAT Community Impact Award winner 2025 Hannah Deakin MAAT is on a mission to raise awareness and work towards better conditions for disabled and neurodivergent people in the accounting sector
Words Jessica Bown
AT A GLANCE
1
Award-winning resilience
Alongside successfully working at an automotive company in their internal audit team, Hannah Deakin MAAT campaigns tirelessly for equality for those with disabilities.
2
Changing perceptions
Deakin's advocacy work has been widely recognised, including by the MPs in Westminster and at the AAT Impact Awards.
3
Inspiring others
Deakin hopes her work can shift the dial with employers, enabling them to see the resilience and problem-solving skills that candidates with disabilities will bring to their roles.
Hannah Deakin MAAT spent her early years in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, where she lived with her parents and brother Ben. She enjoyed a happy childhood, performing well at school and in sports. At the age of 14, however, a netball injury changed her life forever.
The injury caused complex regional pain syndrome, which led to secondary complications and meant she spent many years in hospital, followed by a neurological centre. She only left – as a wheelchair user – at the age of 21.
“I missed a lot of my education as I only came home from hospital in 2012,” Deakin, now 35, says. “I managed to do my maths and English GCSEs a year and a half apart while very poorly in hospital but was unable to take most of my other exams.
“The fact I could do AAT without A-Levels was a real opportunity for me. It gave me a chance to have a career in accounting.”
Choosing accountancy
Inspired by her accountant mother and having always had a flair for maths, Deakin decided to pursue a career in accounting a few years after leaving hospital.
“After becoming disabled and considering what professions would work for me, I thought about accountancy and the potential to do it from home,” she says.
“I started the AAT Level 2 certificate in accounting in 2015 and finished my Level 4 diploma in professional accounting in 2019. It was challenging but I enjoyed the courses, which I did via an evening course with support of a teaching assistant at my local college that met all of my access needs.”
She went on to get work experience at an automotive business, where she could put her accounting knowledge to good use in a workplace environment.
“I wasn’t hopeful of my chances of finding work as I was only able to work a few hours a week at the time,” Deakin says.
“But through networking at a charity event, I managed to get the opportunity to do some work experience for four hours a week.”
She has since shown her capability and secured part-time employment there, leading to a secondment to the internal audit team, splitting her time between remote and office work.
“I still work at the company and have increased my hours to 14 per week,” Deakin says. “In 2022, my employer started to sponsor me to take my ACCA qualifications, with which I am now part-qualified.
“Studying, balancing working, daily physiotherapy and exhaustion is a tricky balance, but I’m committed to becoming fully qualified, hopefully by 2027.”
“The fact I could do AAT without A-Levels was a real opportunity for me. It gave me a chance to have a career in accounting.”
AAT believes in equality of opportunity for all
AAT aims to ensure qualifications are:
1
Free from barriers
Qualifications are free from barriers that restrict access and progression, and they are attainable by all who can demonstrate the required standard by whatever means.
2
Free from dicrimination
Qualifications and publications are free from discriminatory practices or stereotypes with regard to gender, race, age, creed or sexual orientation.
3
Sufficiently varied and flexible
Assessment tasks and study opportunities are sufficiently varied and flexible to ensure that no particular group of student members or would-be students are placed at any disadvantage.
4
Amenable to individual requirements
All reasonable adjustments are made to cater for the individual requirements of student members.
5
Impartially Assessed
Assessments are valid and reliable to ensure that all student members receive impartial treatment.
Promoting equality
Deakin is passionate about making a difference, changing perceptions and promoting equality, particularly in the accounting sector.
Her advocacy work has led her to the House of Commons, where she has spoken to MPs about issues affecting disabled people, including employment challenges and the extra costs they face.
She has also won a range of awards, including being named one of the UK’s 100 most influential disabled people in 2024 and scooping the AAT Community Impact Award 2025.
“I was really honoured to be chosen as the winner of the AAT award,” she says. “I felt like it showed I have made a difference, which is really important to me.’’
“I write my blog, Hannah’s Hope, and I try to make a difference at work when I can. I also write occasional articles, speak at events and do speeches at schools, raising awareness about the needs of people with disabilities and the opportunities they can have when barriers are removed.”
Inspiring others
Deakin hopes to help employers see the benefits of employing disabled people by highlighting the additional skills of resilience, problem-solving and determination they bring to the workplace.
She is also keen to help disabled and neurodivergent people support one another via a network she has helped to set up.
“I recently co-founded the Disabled and Neurodivergent Accountants Network, which aims to offer support and connections for all accountants, no matter what body they trained or are training with,” Deakin says. “We have a LinkedIn page if anyone is disabled or neurodivergent and interested in joining.”
Having come into contact with a number of professional associations due to her campaigning, she believes AAT is a good choice for anyone living with disability who is interested in a career in finance.
“AAT qualifications are a great option for people with disabilities,” she says. “There is a lot of flexibility around when and where you do your studies and your exams, which is really helpful.
“The welcoming and inclusive nature of the organisation also really came across at the AAT Impact Awards 2025. There was, for example, a ramp for me to get up to the stage.
“It’s surprising how many organisations and people don’t think about things like that when setting up events of that kind. But the AAT team did think about it and that impressed me.”
Deakin is also a supporter of the new-look AAT Level 4 diploma for professional accounting technicians, which includes modules on equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging (EDIB) and allows students to sit assessments at a time and place that suits them.
“The new Level 4 qualification looks even more inclusive and seems a really positive step,” she adds.
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A crusade for equality
AAT Community Impact Award winner 2025 Hannah Deakin is on a mission to raise awareness and work towards better conditions for disabled and neurodivergent people in the accounting sector
Words Jessica Bown