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DISABILITIES ARE NOT LIMITING FACTOR IN ENTREPRENEURSHIPSeveral years ago, while still employed with Federal Industry Canada as the Regional Manager for Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Prairie Provinces, I had many occasions to work with the Saskatchewan Association of Rehabilitation Centres. At one point, I was on their Advisory Council lending my experience in entrepreneurship to the Executive Director. One of the most gratifying was when I created a greeting card company reproducing original works of Saskatchewan artists for resale into the communities where the Association had rehabilitation centres.
My goal was to encourage the reentry of disabled persons to their respective geographic communities and through that avenue, hopefully prompt an interest in self-employment.
The potential positive impact of entrepreneurship on people with disabilities and their families is substantial. The magnitude of the needs of the disabled and their families is quite evident. Self-employment can reverse to a considerable degree, the family disruption process that occurs and provide happily a productive alternative. When faced with an absence of traditional employment opportunities, including employment loss due to the unforeseen arrival of a disability, the disabled individual and their families often possess the impetus to initiate a new venture start.
The family itself may even begin the new venture themselves to support and enable their loved one to continue confidently on their life’s journey. In almost 100% of such situations, the family is going to become extensively involved in all aspects of the new venture creation.
Entrepreneurship, it has been said, has become a consequence of disability discrimination in the workforce. Many disabled entrepreneurs have launched their own ventures because they have encountered too many obstacles while searching for a traditional job or career path. Despite work limitations, people with disabilities need opportunities to pursue such pathways and the entrepreneurship avenue provides a way for them to gain employment.
Entrepreneurship presents both benefits with some disadvantage as well for people experiencing a disability. Operating a small entrepreneurial venture includes the freedom, flexibility and independence associated with self-employment and freedom from access-related obstacles as: transportation, fatigue, inaccessible work environments and the need for personal direct assistance.
Potential disadvantages may be – a loss of cash benefits associated with supplemental disability programs, loss of health care benefits from cash programs, loss of housing and other subsidies and lack of assets to use as collateral. But, frankly, the socio-economic benefits to the individual disabled person and their families outweighs the “potential” disadvantages considerably in our opinion.
Many disabled entrepreneurs find a niche market in serving the needs of people with disabilities and starting a small business venture is truly an important opportunity as many non-profit social organizations as well as government agencies as Federal Western Economic Diversification and their associated Community Futures regional agencies are supporting entrepreneurship education and assistance for our Canadians with disabilities which is a wonderful resource network.
As they comprise an important segment of the Canadian workforce and often face challenges in finding satisfying work, people with disabilities can indeed benefit from the world of entrepreneurship as a means to achieve self-satisfaction, economic benefit and a job function tailored to their specific talents and capabilities.
Interestingly, many times, family members may initiate the new venture “ idea” as well based on a specific skill, ability, expertise and interest of their disabled family.
My research for this article has demonstrated that there exists considerable self-employment information for the Okanagan Valley budding disabled person to consider entrepreneurship as a career choice. For such individuals these information and network sources will:
- help families explore entrepreneurship as an economic development tool to remove a potentially productive family member from the social sector rolls;
- encourage people with disabilities to better direct and control their economic destinies through self-employment and,
- provide the entrepreneurial optimism required for the growth and development of future young people with disabilities otherwise facing a barrage of employment barriers and challenges.
But, what we need to do as a community, as a region, is: if we choose to embrace the notion of creating an Okanagan Valley Entrepreneurship Strategy and Action Plan for our population, we must ensure the inclusion of our disabled citizens in the methodologies we will employ, toward the creation of new Valley entrepreneurs for years to come.
Joel young is an entrepreneurship coach, educator & consultant at
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