The First National Congress of Entrepreneurship and Disability in November will present the White Paper of the Entrepreneur with Disability

Madrid will host on November 10 and 11 the First National Congress of Entrepreneurship and Disability, an event organized by the ONCE Foundation, the Spanish Committee of Representatives of Disabled People (CERMI), and the Association of Entrepreneurship and Disability (ASEMDIS) in order to let people know about this type of entrepreneur and to establish a connection between them and potential investors.

The meeting will serve as a framework of presentation for the White Paper of the Entrepreneur with Disability, which aims to approach the reality of disabled people who pick self-employment and to offer them useful help to promote and manage their businesses.

From this perspective, the congress seeks to identify the main challenges, barriers and needs that the disabled entrepreneurs to later suggest and develop useful support programmes for them. Additionally, the congress is expected to shed light on data and statistics of this segment of entrepreneurs, as well as on the legal frame and the positive action-oriented policies that protect them.

There will be time to know the most relevant academic research that approaches entrepreneurship with disability, thus creating a meeting point that favours the business cooperation among entrepreneurs with disabilities, as well as with potential investors and other agents of the entrepreneur ecosystem.

Taking all of this into account, the congress is aimed at businessmen, entrepreneurs and people with disabilities interested in starting a business; professionals of entities that support citizens with disabilities in their work journey, as well as employment technicians; coaches, consultants, investors and other professionals that join the entrepreneur through all their way, and entrepreneurs with no disability who seek to form alliances.

Profitable and positive

Just like the representatives of the three entities that promote this congress stated after the signing of an agreement to encourage entrepreneurship among the people with disabilities, to grant visibility of the entrepreneur talent of these citizens is a need, and it has already been proven to be economically and socially profitable and positive.

In this sense, José Luis Martínez Donoso, general director of the ONCE Foundation, claimed that this entity has already helped over 1,900 people with disabilities interested in starting a business, and that he has checked that their work and perseverance makes their results better than those of the entrepreneurs without disabilities. He assures that 85% of the businesses started by people with disabilities are maintained long-term, while only 60% of those with no disabilities do. Moreover, 40% of the entrepreneurs that count with the ONCE Foundation’s support have created jobs, he concluded, which proves that investing on this employment branch is profitable and positive.

On the other hand, Luis Cayo Pérez Bueno, president of the Spanish Committee of Representatives of Disabled People (CERMI), spoke about the importance to work with the ONCE Foundation and ASEMDIS in the promotion of entrepreneurship among the disabled: “Contributing with operators of this relevance to promote entrepreneurship is almost the perfect equation within our strategy”, he stated. In this regard, he asserts that entrepreneurship “is a dimension of economic empowering, essential for vital and personal growth”.

Finally, Lidia Parra, president of ASEMDIS, brought to light the importance to grant visibility to her association, which aims to function as a link of union among disabled entrepreneurs and businesses and entities related in one way or another to entrepreneurship. She also pointed at the fact that they especially seek to help disabled women who are willing to start a business, many of those are, in many occasions, victims of gender-based violence.

 Translated by Andrea Expósito Santana