PROJECT TEAM: Sarah Parker Harris (Associate Professor, Disability Studies), Maija Renko (Associate Professor, Entrepreneurship), Kate Caldwell (Post‐Doctoral Fellow), Rob Gould (Project Coordinator), Robin Jones (Director, Great Lakes ADA Center), Rod Schrader (Director, Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies), Chris Danguilan (PhD student, Disability Studies), Sean Kemper (PhD student, Business)
What is the Problem? Low Employment Rate: 33.9% vs. 74.2%(people with disabilities compared to people without disabilities).
Why so low? Policy barriers, systematic barriers, poverty, discrimination, stigma, etc.
MAIN BARRIERS 1. Lack of centrally reported data.2. Financial and economic barriers.3. Attitudinal barriers.4. Traditional‐expectations barrier.5. Low‐readiness barrier.
▪ Education, training, technical assistance.
▪ Business development.
▪ Individual characteristics.
6. Systemic barriers.▪ Programmatic barriers.
▪ Public services and assistance.
▪ Technological barriers.
7. Social support barriers.
ENTREPRENEURS SAY…
I walk into a traditional lender and they see I’m making around $13,000 per year in disability [social security benefits]… securing a loan is difficult unless there are programs that help people with disabilities launch business entities.
I didn’t really have any mentors with disabilities. It would definitely help because it’s a different ballgame [having a disability and running a business]. People without disabilities don’t have to consider what I do additionally, such as pay for personal assistants and that kind of thing.
2010‐2014: Pilot research grant funded by University of Illinois at Chicago.
Goal: to understand how people with disabilities recognize business opportunities, the incentives/disincentives to start‐up and success, current resources, services, supports and gaps.
Project Outcomes:
1. Literature and policy review on disability and entrepreneurship.2. Community Resource Assessment of services, supports, resources. 3. Quantitative Study: secondary data set analysis of the Panel Study of
Entrepreneurial Dynamics II (PSED).
4. Qualitative Study: interviews with disability and business stakeholders (n=27); focus groups with social entrepreneurs with disabilities (n=19); dyadic interviews with social entrepreneurs with intellectual disabilities and key support persons (n=6 dyads).
Role of Funding Lack of access to capital. Disparities in financial literature. Disability‐specific barriers.
Role of Culture Stigma of not being taken
seriously as a business person. Negative stereotypes around
expectations, capabilities, risk. Lack of mentors and models of
success.
You need to buy the assistive technology if you have a disability and you might have to find extra money for the business needs or your own needs…. If you spend $500 on a seat cushion for a wheelchair, you’re not spending it on your laptop.
There’s still way too much of the thinking that, “there’s a poor person with a disability trying to run a business”. So if we can show disability‐owned social enterprises are viable businesses, then it would definitely help change attitudes.
2015‐2017: Training, education, evaluation grant funded by Coleman Foundation.
Goals: to bridge entrepreneurship and disability, develop/enhance skills of service providers, build collaboration, prepare entrepreneurs for business start‐up and success.
Project Outcomes: 1. Online community resource guide for entrepreneurs and service providers. 2. Collect national success stories of entrepreneurs. 3. Provide training and education for: Staff in Disability Community Agencies and Small Business Development
Centers (n=30) People with disabilities and support persons (n=40).
Development of comprehensive training and evaluation in areas of: Entrepreneurship, motivation, discovery. From idea to opportunity. Disability awareness, advocacy, professional presence. Marketing. Business planning. Mobilizing resources, networking, mentoring. Financing the business. Sustainability, strategy, supports.
Training Delivery 8 sessions (in‐person) over 16 weeks for each group.
One hour “information” with speakers from both disability and business fields. Two hour break‐out “application” in small groups. Take‐home online workbooks with activities (e.g. development of business plan or agency plan).
Websitewww.ceedproject.org
www.ceedproject.org
Electronic copies of plain language summaries of research, links to full journal articles, infographic on entrepreneurship, community resource guide, success stories, etc.
Journal Articles Caldwell, K., Parker Harris, S. & Renko, M. (in press) Social Entrepreneurs with Disabilities: Exploring Motivational and
Attitudinal Factors. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies.
Renko. M., Parker Harris, S. & Caldwell, K. (2015) Entrepreneurial Entry by People with Disabilities. International SmallBusiness Journal.
Parker Harris, S., Renko, M., & Caldwell, K. (2014). Social Entrepreneurship as an Innovative Pathway to Employmentfor People with Disabilities: exploring political‐economic and socio‐cultural factors. Disability & Society, 29 (8), 1275‐1290.
Parker Harris, S., Caldwell, K. & Renko, M. (2014). Entrepreneurship by Any Other Name: Self‐Sufficiency versusInnovation. Journal of Social Work in Disability & Rehabilitation, 13 (4), 317‐49.
Parker Harris, S., Renko, M., & Caldwell, K. (2013). Accessing Social Entrepreneurship: Perspectives of People withDisabilities and Key Stakeholders. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation 38 (1), 35‐48.
Caldwell, K., Parker Harris, S. & Renko, M. (2012) The Potential of Social Entrepreneurship: Conceptual Tools forApplying Citizenship Theory to Policy and Practice. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities 50 (6), 505‐518.
