Disability Entrepreneurship in Australia

Funding: 2017: $75,000
2018: $85,000
2019: $42,500
2016: $32,500

Project Member(s): Collins, J., Darcy, S.

Funding or Partner Organisation: Australian Research Council (ARC Linkage Projects)
Settlement Services International
Break thru people solutions (Break Thru People solutions PF)
National Disability Services

Start year: 2016

Summary: People with disability face considerable economic and social exclusion in Australia. One innovative response to this is private and social entrepreneurship. People with disability have a relatively high rate of entrepreneurship yet research on disability entrepreneurship in Australia is almost non-existent. With the introduction of the NDIS new opportunities for disability entrepreneurship will emerge. This project will generate for the first time detailed insights into disability entrepreneurs who run private enterprises in Australia, their experiences, the contributions they make and the barriers they face. New policy initiatives, including a pilot program to facilitate new disability entrepreneurs in Sydney, will be developed. The project’s main aim is to better understand the pathways of people with disability to entrepreneurship in order to increase Australia’s capacity for developing evidence-based policy initiatives to increase the number of, and success of, disability entrepreneurs. The research hypothesis is that entrepreneurship increases the social inclusion and improves the employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Keywords: Disability, Entrepreneurship, Enterprise Facilitation, Gender, Australia

FOR Codes: Entrepreneurship, Small Business Management, Urban and Regional Studies (excl. Planning), Ability and Disability, Employment Patterns and Change, Management and Productivity not elsewhere classified, Small business organisation and management, Rural and regional geography

Acknowledgement of Country

UTS acknowledges the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, the Boorooberongal people of the Dharug Nation, the Bidiagal people and the Gamaygal people, upon whose ancestral lands our university stands. We would also like to pay respect to the Elders both past and present, acknowledging them as the traditional custodians of knowledge for these lands.