INCLUSION THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The recent reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, and the subsequent advancement of Employment First policy has reignited discussion around disability employment, particularly with regards to the potential for entrepreneurship to challenge the charity and rehabilitation models that pervade disability employment.

While self-employment among people with disabilities has been studied previously, entrepreneurship is qualitatively distinct both theoretically and in practice. Believed to foster economic growth and attitudinal change, entrepreneurship has been an essential part of the economy and historically has been used to help disadvantaged populations enter the labor market. Entrepreneurs with disabilities represent a source of innovation and productivity and, if offered the appropriate resources, entrepreneurship is both an employment strategy and an antipoverty strategy that can lead to economic self-sufficiency and empowerment.

This presentation reports on current employment trends and policies in the United States, and presents results from an interdisciplinary research project that uniquely bridges the fields of disability studies and entrepreneurial studies.

To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office at 206-543-6450 (voice), 206-543-6452 (TTY), 206-685-7264 (fax), or dso@uw.edu, preferably at least 10 days in advance of the event.  ASL and CART have been requested.

Sarah Parker Harris, PhD,is an associate professor and the director of graduate and undergraduate studies in the Department of Disability and Human Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  She has published and presented widely in areas of disability policy and law, entrepreneurship and disability, welfare-to-work, and international human rights.

Robert Gould, PhD, is an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Disability and Human Development and is the Director of Research for the Great Lakes ADA Center. His interests include both domestic and international social policy and evaluation, employment and vocational rehabilitation, knowledge translation, and issues of rights and social justice as they pertain to people with disabilities.