Work Culture

What does accessible work look like? For some, it’s entrepreneurship

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Published on May 03, 2022

Tired of feeling out of sync in workplaces rife with bias and inaccessibility, entrepreneurs with disabilities are striking out on their own.

Stills from Rubio's film about her caregiving experience.

"I decided I was going to set up my own business, because I’m not going to wait another three years for another job that is not suitable.”

Sulaiman R. Khan.
Sulaiman R. Khan, founder of ThisAbility Limited.

It’s also a potential safeguard against the staggering unemployment rate people with disabilities face. About one million Americans with disabilities lost their jobs during the first year of the pandemic. In America, the unemployment rate for people with disabilities is 10.1% compared to 5.1% for people without—and the disparity exists regardless of education level. It’s slightly less than double in the U.K., where Sulaiman R. Khan lives.

 

After graduating from university in 2012, it took Khan three years to get his first job—and not, he’s quick to add, for a lack of applying. He eventually had to quit in July 2016, nearly eight months later, due to the company’s inaccessibility. (Khan was also underpaid, a legalized discriminatory practice that still happens to people with disabilities all over the world due to bias about their perceived lower productivity.)

 

Months later, “I decided I was going to set up my own business,” he says, “because I’m not going to wait another three years for another job that is not suitable.”

"... When you have to fight and strive to get [your physical and mental needs] to a minimum baseline, you just go, ‘Is this worth it?"

Rebecca Beam
Rebecca Beam, founder of Zavikon.