New ventures
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Disability-related professions and businesses may seem like a unique opportunity for innovation and entrepreneurship, especially for people with disabilities who are looking for ways to make their mark and live a better life. It is true that the specific practical needs and aspirations of people with disabilities are relatively ignored. But disability entrepreneurs still need to do their homework before diving into seemingly wide-open disability-related fields and markets.
It’s easy to assume that the disability-related field and market is an unexplored frontier: empty, exciting, seemingly uncompetitive, and brimming with unmet needs, desperately waiting for the right visionary to fill them. But like most real frontiers throughout history, the idea that the disability field is an unexplored territory that can be easily exploited is a misconception. People with disabilities are often underserved. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on. There’s very little in disability life and culture that’s entirely new or unexamined.
There is also a temptation to view every new disability-friendly idea or initiative as inherently good. However, every new disability-friendly product or initiative has both potential positive and negative aspects. For example,
New assistive devices, such as stair-climbing wheelchairs, allow mobility in poorly accessible situations, especially going up and down stairs where ramps are not available. But while they may look impressive and be useful in a narrow sense, these devices are expensive, cumbersome, and their practicality in the practical everyday life of people with disabilities is somewhat questionable.
New services like disability dating apps offer safer and perhaps more rewarding tools for disabled people to socialize and find disability-friendly relationships. But do disabled people really want separate, narrow and segregated solutions to social inclusion? Or would it be better to make existing mainstream dating apps and services more disability compatible?
New disability organizations, like the nonprofit Popcorn Store, which employs people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, create more inclusive, accommodating, and straightforward solutions to the problem of finding gainful and meaningful employment. But such ventures are prone to the same shortcomings as other segregated, disability-specific alternatives to making the normal environment ableist. And if care is not taken, these customized employment opportunities, while ideal in concept and intent, can be poor and exploitative in practice.
Pursuing disability-related ideas and innovations can be personally rewarding and beneficial for the wider disability community. But a desire to help and a good idea alone are not enough to guarantee relevance or success. Before starting something new in the disability field, here are some things to consider:
Is your product or idea useful?
Does it actually work and do what you expect it to do? Is it practical, or does it just seem cool? A new wheelchair design almost always seems innovative and awesome. And an adaptive device that can do something others can’t might seem like an obvious improvement. But being cool is not the same as being effective. And doing something new, or doing it in a new way, doesn’t necessarily mean that it adds real value to the lives of people with disabilities.
And who exactly will your new product or service serve? This is an important question to ask, especially if you are not disabled. Is this product designed to meet the actual needs of disabled people? Or is it aimed at able-bodied people’s perception of disabled people’s needs? It may or may not be on target. Able-bodied people can make good decisions and come up with really good ideas. But they need to rigorously question where their ideas and priorities are coming from.
Finally, are they affordable? New products are almost always expensive, especially if they are made with mechanical or electronic technology or are highly specialized in design. But are new products and services really affordable to all, or even most, of the people with disabilities they are meant to support? Are there feasible plans to make them affordable and broadly accessible?
Is someone already doing what you plan to do?
Is your new idea truly new? Or is it just new to you? The disability world can be invisible and opaque to those who are not familiar with it. Many people with disabilities are unaware of how much is being done in the various disability fields, and it is easy to get the impression that their idea is unique and that they are virtually the only person working on it.
Do other wheelchair designs, home accessibility features or tools, smart device apps or modifications already exist that meet the needs you target? Before you begin developing your project, ask yourself what is currently available to people with disabilities? Honestly, what may feel like a creative idea to you may already be pretty familiar to the person with a disability you have in mind.
What other websites are out there that focus on the needs and experiences of people with disabilities? Before you start your own, look at other journalists, bloggers, and content creators with disabilities on YouTube, TikTok, and other platforms. You may feel like your voice will be unique. Of course, it will always be unique. But you’re probably not the only disabled or disability-focused voice in the room. It’s best to know what’s out there before you start.
When people with disabilities face a problem and no immediate solution is available, some people try to start new organizations to address the problem. That’s a good thing. But just like developing a new commercial product, it’s important to avoid “reinventing the wheel” in the nonprofit sector. First, find out who else is working on the problem. And remember that joining an existing organization may be a better use of your time, energy, and resources than starting another organization yourself.
What is your motivation?
Something needs to be done, and of course the best way to do it is to be motivated by the desire to satisfy a need that matters to you, because that need matters to other people.
Unfortunately, it is often difficult for us to recognize the difference between meeting the needs of others and meeting our own. Sometimes we meet both, but not always. And we often forget that what is most important is meeting the needs and preferences of the disabled person we want to help, not our own ego. Committing ourselves to a common cause is not necessarily the same as being obsessed with our own ideas.
A true disability innovator must always be prepared to change or discard their ideas if they turn out to be quirky ideas born out of personal passion rather than solutions to the real needs of other disabled people. Ambition is necessary in any disability field, but no one can afford to lose sight of the true goal: to make life better for other disabled people.
There is always the risk of assuming the disability column is empty – a symptom of how isolated many disabled people and their supporters feel, and actually are.
If you want to do something important for the disability community, focus on disabled people — their needs and priorities — don’t try to put your own needs in their place.
Above all, don’t get discouraged: be realistic and be prepared.