Hi Mark,

I am aware of two studies revevant to your question:

Pagan-Rodri­guez R. Self-employment and job satisfaction: evidence for older people with disabilities in Europe. Eur J Ageing. 2011;8(3):177. The study found that self-employed people, both disabled and non-disabled older persons, were more satisfied with their jobs compared to their salary counterparts.

Quinton MC. Self-employment as a solution for attitudinal barriers: a case study. Work. 2014; 48(1):127-30. This is a case study research: a 53-year-old woman with multiple physical impairments (degenerative rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematous) who faced serious attitudinal barriers without opportunity for advancement,  secured a loan for a wheelchair-accessible van  to start own business. She succeeded and more than doubled her earlier office manager's income.

Hope these studies help. Best wishes. Tatyana

Thank you so much Tatyana. Appreciate your help. Cheers, Marc

Hi Marc,

The American Institutes for Research's Center on Knowledge Translation for Employment Research (www.KTER.org), which I direct, has a database housing a few studies on the employment of people with disabilities under its 'resources' tab. You can also find search for studies on that topic that, like the KTER Center, were conducted with funding from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research at www.NARIC.com, the database maintained by the National Rehabilitation Information Center. Good luck!

Kathleen Murphy

Thank you very much indeed Kathleen. Cheers, Marc

Dear Marc, I have just reviewed a paper submitted for this year´s EURAM on this topic. However, I do not know the authors :-(. I have recommended acceptance of this submission, so I guess the authors will present the paper there...

Some recent references from the paper:

- Renko, M., Parker Harris, S., & Caldwell, K. 2016. Entrepreneurial entry by people with disabilities. International Small Business Journal, 34(5): 555-578.

- Ashley, D., & Graf, N. M. 2017. The Process and Experiences of Self-Employment Among People With Disabilities: A Qualitative Study. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 1-11.

- Maritz, A., & Laferriere, R. 2016. Entrepreneurship and self-employment for people with disabilities. Australian Journal of Career Development, 25(2): 45-54.

- Hwang, S. K., & Roulstone, A. 2015. Enterprising? Disabled? The status and potential for disabled people’s microenterprise in South Korea. Disability & Society, 30(1): 114-129.

- Anderson, M., & Galloway, L. 2012. The Value of Enterprise for Disabled People. The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 13(2): 93–101.

Brilliant Ondrej. Thank you. Cheers, Marc

You are welcome, Marc :-)

Look at Butterworth's work at ICI Mass Boston, Mike Callahan at Marc Gold and Assoc, Cary Griffin at Griffin Hammis, Rich Luecking at Transcen, Pat Rogan, David Mank, Paul Lehman, Teresa Grossi as starting points for your research. They will lead you to a considerable body of work.

By the way, one dimension could be seen in key word "Minority Entrepreneurship" when disabled people are treated as minority group on the labour market. On the other hand some theoretical things you could find in works about Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) so common way how to push self empoyment for disabled people in the Czech Republic.(Tool of active labour policy in the Czech Republic).

Maybe those keywords could help you in literature review. I would reccommend you some works of Thomas Cooney from Dublin Institute of Technology, he is experienced in that field.