Freelancing Helps Disabled Workers
By Sherril Steele-Carlin
Self-employment is becoming one of the most popular employment options for disabled workers. Many workers with disabilities are starting their own companies that specialize in products for other disabled workers, like Don Dalton, president of Assistive Technologies.
Dalton formed the company in 1990 to help disabled people find ways to work and contribute to society more effectively. He knows from experience the problems faced in school and work -- he's been paralyzed from the chest down since an accident at age 26. He formed Assistive Technologies to bring the technology to others, after he learned how to use speech-recognition software in his own business. His company provides voice recognition software and hardware to schools around the country.
Business Owners With Disabilities
Dalton is just one of a growing number of business owners with disabilities. According to the Denver Business Journal, “The latest statistics from the U.S. Department of Commerce report the self-employment rate for Americans with disabilities is 15 percent, or nearly twice that of employees who are not disabled.” This is a viable new resource for a segment of the population that has largely been ignored by business and industry. An article in Entrepreneur Magazine states, “The non-employment rate of adults with severe disabilities is around 70 percent, according to the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities.”
Groups Help Disabled Entrepreneurs
Many groups now see the viability of preparing disabled workers to work at home in their own businesses. With the many advances in technology, and the Internet, new frontiers have opened up for people who might once been thought of as “unemployable” in the traditional job market. For example, the Denver Business Journal continues, “In 1998, the National Organization on Disability/Harris Poll of Americans with Disabilities (a nationwide survey) concluded 42 percent of disabled people who were not working believed that attitudinal barriers kept them from working.” Clearly, creating their own home business is a much needed alternative for these workers.
The Internet Helps the Disabled
There are many reasons people with disabilities are turning to the Internet for their businesses. Many people have found they can make a lot more money in their own business than they can assembling widgets or saying "would you like fries with that?" They can work from their own computers, and if they use a site like eBay or something similar, they have access to customers around the world with a simple click of their mouse. This interest in entrepreneurship has spread around the world, and there are support groups in Asia, Africa, Canada, and Europe that help train and finance people with disabilities so they can work on their own.
So, freelancing out of the home may be the perfect answer for the disabled who need to work, earn a living, and create a new and viable career.
