Entrepreneurship and Disability : A Global Map and Manifesto for Stigma Reversal

Disabled people constitute the world’s largest minority, yet remain conspicuously under-represented in best practices and current theories of organizing. This book offers a global map, and manifesto, by showcasing how people with disabilities entrepreneur.

Discover how entrepreneurship can dismantle the structural, social, cultural, and internalized stigma of disability in this compelling book. Journey through six countries and uncover inspiring stories of disabled people using diverse entrepreneurial strategies – micro-entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, activism, bricolage, compassion, and institutional entrepreneurship – to challenge and overcome stigma. Meet Belen Dofitas, who aids people affected by leprosy in the Philippines through micro-enterprise opportunities. Explore the efforts of Ugandan bricoleurs creating small-scale activities to uplift their communities. Discover the impact of a Kenyan psychiatrist’s peer-to-peer mental health interventions and the Global Minds Collective. Follow six UK women with invisible disabilities as they transform their experiences into powerful advocacy through a documentary. Learn about Neha Arora’s all-disability travel agency, Planet Abled based in India, and her work to allow everyone to read the book that is life. Understand how neurosurgeon Neilank Jha’s work on concussion treatment and brain–computer interfaces is improving lives. These diverse narratives highlight different pathways to systemic change and disability destigmatization. The book concludes by showing how initial slow system changes can accelerate, leading to significant transformations and manifesting declarations that can ultimately change the system. Dive into these stories of entrepreneuring against disability stigma and see how disability entrepreneurship can foster a more inclusive world.