Estimated at over a quarter of all entrepreneurs disabled business founders are an economic force worth a potential extra £500 million plus to the British economy according to the Access2Funding report. This isn't surprising for a group who over-index on problem solving, creativity and innovation. The report by Clu, whose aim is to support underrepresented candidates in business and recruiting investors to guide them in improving engagement with disabled founders, covers the issues facing disabled business owners.
A similar report by Small Business Britain, “Disability and Entrepreneurship” , shares statistics and possible next steps to better support disabled business owners. In this article, we’ll cover the key findings of the reports and also where they’ve fallen short: practical actions for change.
Skip links for this article 1. Challenges faced by disabled entrepreneurs in the UK
3. What's next
The reports identify barriers that stop disabled entrepreneurs accessing investment opportunities and reaching their growth potential, here’s a short breakdown.
Challenges faced by disabled entrepreneurs
Inequality in Opportunities
25% of entrepreneurs have a disability or neurodiverse condition, of those 84% feel they lack equal access to resources compared to non-disabled founders.
Regressive Accessibility
Accessibility progress in the UK is regressing after initial improvements during the pandemic.
Entrepreneurship Out of Necessity
Challenges in traditional employment, such as inaccessibility and discrimination, drive disabled individuals into entrepreneurship for survival
“a third of entrepreneurs (33%) start a business because they could not find a job that accommodated their needs. We should be clear that even with the benefits that it brings, entrepreneurship should be a choice, not a last resort because employers cannot accommodate the needs of workers”
Financial Burdens
Additional costs for managing conditions, equipment, and support workers hinder disabled entrepreneurs' financial stability.
Barriers to Startup Process
Essential services like Companies House, website creation, and bank account setup are often inaccessible.
Additional Hurdles
Conditions such as chronic fatigue make having a side hustle alongside a job impossible and being in receipt of benefits can negate access to key services open to other entrepreneurs.
Online Inaccessibility
97% of top 1 million websites are not fully accessible, hindering access to information and funding opportunities. 33% of disabled founders access online support, with 67% unable to access it due to inaccessible sign-up processes and jargon.
Lack of Representation
Media lacks disabled entrepreneurship representation and when it does appear it often reinforces stereotypes.
“When we switch on TV we see shows like Dragons Den or The Apprentice, that have no representation. When they do appear, it is so few and far between that it makes newspaper headlines. This supports the idea that we are “special” or “inspirational” because of our Disability, not for our business idea or work.” Jamie Shields, The Inclusivi-t
Need for Relatable Role Models
High profile entrepreneurs are not great role models, it’s hard to bridge the inspiration gap: they need people with similar experiences who can share advice. This is being adresssed by Small Business Britain's d:entrepreneur site, where they are sharing stories of disabled founders.
Lack of Mentorship
There is a particularly profound demand for mentorship, with 70% sharing they lacked appropriate role models to guide them… particularly when navigating the start-up process and accessing finance.
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Challenges with Hybrid Support
Hybrid training's inadequacy highlights differences, potentially excluding disabled entrepreneurs further.
Missed Support Opportunities
Disabled entrepreneurs often miss out on support due to assumptions about their accessibility needs.
Stigma and Masking
Reluctance to label oneself as disabled due to preconceptions about disability, and the need for masking hinder support access, if you can’t or don’t want to reveal access requirements you may be unable to benefit from support services. skip quote
“[We need to be] shifting the conversation about disability from a purely welfare topic to being part of all decision-making right from the start”
Attitudinal Barriers
Business support providers' attitudes assume disabled entrepreneurs can't benefit from training, it is unsuitable or they wouldn’t get anything from it.
“There is a focus on where disabled people need support, and rightly so, but in a way that does not empower individuals, but diminishes them.”
Seeing the Disability, Ignoring the Individual
There is a focus on where disabled entrepreneurs in the UK need support, but without acknowledging them as individuals, for their needs, strengths and weaknesses.
Lack of Access to Startup Capital
The majority of disabled entrepreneurs, close to 60%, received no financial support to start up, despite being likely to face considerable additional financial hurdles. The most common source of funding by far is friends and family at close to 20%, followed by grants at around 9% of entrepreneurs.
Key recommendations and where they fall short
Small Business Britain suggests steps the government and other powerful organisations take to enhance disabled entrepreneurship, however as the report was co-sponsored by Lloyds the recommendations focus on what they are doing and their stated goals moving forwards.
The report suggests a comprehensive strategy is needed to support disabled entrepreneurs across various aspects of their journey, however the language of the report, using words such as “explore” and “aim”, fails to outline specific actions. They give the example of Lloyds Bank expanding their business mentoring program and investing in onboarding capabilities though they do not say how they plan to effectively target disabled entrepreneurs.
Again, focusing on Lloyds, they say they aim to make their web presence and systems inclusive by collaborating with the Digital Accessibility Centre and conducting Disability Smart audits to ensure that websites meet POUR standards. There is no explanation of why these steps are beneficial to disabled entrepreneurs, nor how other businesses can implement similar strategies.
Recommendations for Big Business & Public Sector include raising the profile of disabled people,“Organisations must celebrate and champion role models in the disabled community, to build broader awareness and understanding across society”. We’d suggest the report needs to emphasise that disabled people must be hired to lead projects like this, we need to be in control of our representation.
The report also fails to mention the intersections of disability: you can be disabled and working class, disabled and a person of colour, disabled and LGBTQ+. One issue is the lack of data collected about intersection experiences, for example a recent report by the ONS suggested that "those who identified as "Asian, Asian British or Asian Welsh: Chinese" had the lowest percentage of disability (8.6% in England and 9.3% in Wales)" however it failed to identify possible reasons for this. Further reporting has suggested this is unlikely due to a true difference in rates of disability but rather a difference in cultural perception of disability and family structures. One major factor in the divide is also that there is even less support for disabled people with multiple marginalised identities and this translates across to the business world.
To be clear, it is a good thing that research is being published on disabled business owners and especially when it's led by disabled people such as with Clu however as small business owners on the outside looking in, there is a lack of actionable steps or in-built accountability, or if it exists it's not transparent.
What's next?
We could go through every recommendation, but instead we will look at what’s missing and what is already being done by the disabled community and allies to address these issues.
Google search results show that most support for disability and work is aimed at getting disabled people into employment, but disabled business owners recognised the gap long before these reports and started building their own communities.
As Joseph Williams, CEO of Clu says, disabled founders are determined:
"When faced with unsupportive systems, you can either accept or build anew. So, we build."
In that spirit, we'd like to highlight one very positive thing from these reports:
“100% of disabled business owners aim to hire more disabled individuals”
Disabled people support each other, and that's just what the next section is all about.
Where to find support
Below are some organisations working on supporting disabled business owners in different aspects of business, including mentorship, funding, networking and skill building.
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Who are they?
They work with a range of organisations to support people with learning disabilities to gain and stay in employment or self employment. They say they exist because “fewer than 6% of people with a learning difficulty are in paid work.”
What do they offer?
Job coaching
Self-employment and small business development
Business Support Circles for business owners
Alongside RED, Rapid Enterprise Development they have created startup guides in a range of reading levels and for different access needs
Contact: Form here
Who are they?
They aim to “to create a world in which becoming an entrepreneur is accessible for everyone.”
What do they offer?
Free webinars with disabled business owners and industry leaders
One-to-one mentoring
Grants for disabled entrepreneurs
Contact: info@accessfulfoundation.org.uk
Who are they?
They support disabled professionals working in London. They aim to bring together people with first-hand experience of the same issues, to overcome feelings of isolation at work, and benefit from each other’s experiences. They aren’t tailored to business owners, but have disabled mentors who run their own businesses.
What do they offer?
Mentoring service with other disabled professionals. Some are featured on their site, but they say to get in contact and they will aim to pair you with someone in your field.
Information brochures on common issues faced by disabled people in work
Contact: 07955 244048 or info@citydisabilities.org.uk
Who are they?
They provide information, advice and support to disabled people and people with long term health conditions, who run, or want to run, their own business.
What do they offer?
Information on starting or running your own business in plain English and accessible formats
Support to find and access local and national schemes, finance and training that may not be accessible to you on your own
A signposting service, you can submit a query and one of their team will research and get back to you with answers and resources
A LinkedIn group of disabled entrepreneurs
Contact: info@adp.org.uk
Who are they?
Awards for disabled entrepreneurs in business with a turnover of £5,000 per year.
What do they offer?
Three awards of £50,000, £30,000 and £20,0000
Note: their terms and conditions are quite detailed.
You can email SteliosAward@leonardcheshire.org with questions.
Who are they?
They support social enterprises, charities and B-corporations led by or supporting people from excluded groups, including disabled people. Businesses can apply for £20,000 – £50,000 through a flexible revenue share model. You have to have been trading for one year.
What do they offer?
Tailored mentorship programme
Access to industry networks
Access to field experts
Repeated capital investments, not just startup capital
Pre-investment support through The Reach Fund
Who are they?
Run by The Federation of Small Businesses, Business Without Barriers aims to share stories of successful disabled business owners, give expert guidance and work with members to provide recommendations for the government.
What do they offer?
Regular free networking events for disabled business owners (including non-members)
Case studies of disabled business owners
An advice service for members
Business guides on various aspects of running your own business
FSB app for members, with a helpline, local contact search and exclusive events
Contact: customerservices@fsb.org.uk or via their online form
Who are they?
Ki helps disabled entrepreneurs to realise their dream of running and growing their own business by providing on-going support, expertise and investment at all stages of a business. Their sibling organisation The Ki Foundation offers support to non-profits and social enterprises.
What do they offer?
Investments of between £10,000 - £250,000 in businesses for a small equity stake, or convertible loan
Grants of up to £1,000 to individuals looking to start social enterprises or small life-style businesses
Community support through the KF sharing circle, weekly on Wednesdays
An incubation program with weekly sessions to support you to develop your social enterprise
Training in business skills, mostly led by disabled trainers
Comment on this article with any organisations we've not listed! We'd love to keep expanding this list.
Looking for something else?
Here’s a selection of groups, by and for the disabled and neurodivergent community. There are many more, please comment with any you have found useful in the past!
Honourable mentions
Here are some resources which don’t necessarily cater specifically to disabled entrepreneurs, but might be useful to you.
Royal National Institute of Blind People's guide to becoming self employed
British Business Bank has worked with RNIB to make their organisation fit the Visibly Better Employer Framework so their site may be suitable for more access requirements.
Capital Enterprise, a startup loan company who have a slack group for entrepreneurs. Slack has recently relaunched with a focus on accessibility.
A short piece on American resources for disabled entrepreneurs
Are you a small business owner in need of branding? Check out our guide next:
Are you aware of, or involved in this? https://www.cityam.com/the-lilac-review-launched-to-unlock-barriers-facing-disabled-entrepreneurs/