Illinois Entrepreneurship Program for People with Disabilities

Looking to support people with disabilities as entrepreneurs, professors Maija Renko and Sarah Parker Harris are developing the CEED, or the Chicagoland Entrepreneurship Education for People with Disabilities. The goal of this effort is to create an Illinois-based training program for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities, service providers and small-business development centers to teach entrepreneurial fundamentals along with issues specific to the disability community like benefits counseling or handling attitudes and discrimination. 

“We know about women, minorities and immigrant entrepreneurs, but nobody’s really talking about people with disabilities being entrepreneurs,” says Parker Harris. “Not only is there a need for more research on this topic, there’s a need to help the people interested.” 

From a long-term perspective, the program hopes to establish a business planning competition for entrepreneurs with disabilities and offer guidance to replicate the efforts nationally. Formal work on the program began in January 2015 and a Spring kick-off is expected.