April 9, 2018

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.

 

WHEN

Tuesday, April 10th, 2018

10-11:30 am

 

WHERE

Allen Library Auditorium

 

ASL and CART have been requested.

 

https://disabilitystudies.washington.edu/April10_2018_Harris_entrepreneurship