Resources to Help You Find Work if You Have a Disability

Quick Reference for Jobseekers:
Resources to Help You Find Work if You Have a Disability

There are many paths to finding employment for individuals with disabilities. Below are organizations and online resources that can assist you with your job search.

Online Job Posting Boards for People with Disabilities:

One method for finding employment is by posting your resume on an online job board. Although EARN does not offer a job board, there are several organizations that do:

• Ability Jobs
• disABLED Person
• Disaboom Jobs
• Getting Hired
• Hire Disability Solutions
• One More Way

Job Boards for Veterans with Disabilities:

• Job Opportunities for Disabled American Veterans
• Vet Success
• Veterans Job Bank
• Recruit Military

Programs for College Students with Disabilities:

• The Workforce Recruitment Program (WRP): The WRP connects college students with disabilities to employers for internships and permanent employment. Contact your school coordinator to get involved.
• Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (COSD): This national professional association is comprised of over 600 colleges and universities and over 500 major national employers whose mission is to improve the employment rate of college students and recent graduates with disabilities.
• Learn more on our Internships Page

Recruitment Assistance Organizations for People with Disabilities:

The following organizations offer assistance to job seekers with disabilities. Click on the resource link to find the location of the organization nearest to you.

Local Vocational Rehabilitation Organization

http://askjan.org/cgi-win/TypeQuery.exe?902
Vocational rehabilitation (VR) organizations provide support to individuals with disabilities who are interested in joining, or rejoining, the workforce.

One Stop Career Centers

http://www.servicelocator.org/
One Stop Career Centers assist job seekers with and without disabilities in finding employment through job banks, publications, and other resources.

Independent Living Centers

http://www.virtualcil.net/cils/
Independent Living Centers are organizations that help individuals with disabilities maintain independence by providing job coaching and training, information on disability in the workplace, and may have information on employers who actively recruit people with disabilities.

Work Incentives Program and Assistance Project (WIPA) & Ticket to Work (TTW)

WIPA and TTW provide SSA beneficiaries with information about work incentives, benefit planning, and making good choices about work within the Ticket to Work Program. For more information, visit:

• Fact Sheet on WIPAs
• Service Provider Directory (available by state and county)
• Employment Network/TTW Directory(search by zip, city, or state)
• Employment Options program, a national Work-At-Home employment network

Federal Hiring

According to the 2010 Executive Order, Federal agencies are required to increase the hiring of people with disabilities. The Schedule A hiring flexibility is one way for people with disabilities to be considered for Federal employment. For more information, check out The ABCs of Schedule A.

Once you have obtained all the necessary documentation, contact the Selective Placement Program Coordinator at the agency for which you would like to work.

Additional Online Resources for Job Seekers

• ADA National Network: Regional ADA Centers provide information, guidance, and training on the Americans with Disabilities Act. They can assist job seekers in identifying information to assist them with their job search.
• JobTIPS: JobTIPS is a free program designed to help individuals with disabilities such as autism explore career interests, seek and obtain employment, and successfully maintain employment. JobTIPS addresses the social and behavioral differences that might make identifying, obtaining, and keeping a job more difficult for an individual with a disability.
• mySkills myFuture: This DOL website helps laid-off workers and other career changers find new occupations to explore. Users can identify occupations that require skills and knowledge similar to their current or previous job, learn more about these suggested matches, locate local training programs, and/or apply for jobs.
• Call to Serve: A joint initiative between the Partnership for Public Service and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), Call to Serve, is dedicated to helping you learn more about careers in the federal government. To date, more than 642 campuses and 75 federal agencies have joined together to form the Call to Serve network.

Additional Online Resources for Disabled Veterans

• Veterans Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment Coordinator: The Department of Veterans Affairs offers a variety of support services for veterans with disabilities. For general information about these services, contact your local veterans office using their directory.
• Employment: National Resource Directory: The National Resource Directory is a website that connects wounded warriors, service members, veterans, and their families with those who support them. It offers access to services at the national, state and local levels to support recovery, rehabilitation and community reintegration.
• DisABLEDperson, Inc. – Microsoft IT Academy for Wounded Warriors: This program offered by disABLEDperson, Inc. offers wounded warriors the opportunity to gain marketable job skills through the Microsoft IT Academy Program of eLearning for Wounded Warriors.
• AMVETS - The official website for American Veterans assists veterans and sponsors numerous programs.
• Compensated Work Therapy: Compensated Work Therapy (CWT) is a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) vocational rehabilitation program that endeavors to match and support work-ready veterans in competitive jobs, and to consult with business and industry regarding their specific employment needs. In some locations CWT is also known as Veterans Industries.
• Operation Warfighter - Operation Warfighter (OWF) is a temporary assignment/internship program, developed by the Department of Defense, for service members that are convalescing at military treatment facilities at first in the National Capitol Region but increasingly throughout the United States. The program provides recuperating service members with meaningful activity outside of the hospital environment and offers a formal means of transition back to the military or civilian workforce.
• Paralyzed Veterans of America - Through a broad range of services and experts, Paralyzed Veterans of America works to positively change lives and build brighter futures for our nation's veterans with disabilities and their families.
• Wounded Warriors - This non-profit organization strives to raise awareness and enlist the public's aid for the needs of injured service members, to help injured service members aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet the needs of injured services members.

Questions? For further consultation or assistance, contact EARN atearn@AskEARN.org or call 1-855-AskEARN (1-855-275-3276.)

Hire Gauge Reveals ROI Around Inclusive Hiring

December 12 2011 | by Megan McDonnell

If you’re running a business – small, medium-sized or large – you should check out Think Beyond the Label’s Hire Gauge. I would argue it’s a must.

Hire Gauge is the first-ever online tool to calculate the return on the investment (ROI) your organization can generate from hiring qualified workers with disabilities. For a typical large business, this can mean nearly $32,000 in tax credits, deductions and hiring cost savings – not to mention the additional benefits of diversity in the workplace, from employee morale and loyalty to the opportunity to tap new markets.

All you need is two minutes (literally) to answer a short series of questions. Right before your eyes, Hire Gauge does the math on the results you can expect from your inclusive hiring initiatives. Right down to the dollar.

More and more business are using Hire Gauge
Think Beyond the Label says they built this interactive “wizard” to guide executives interested in inclusive hiring strategies as well as hiring managers charged with recruiting diversity candidates. And it’s taking off. In its first two months alone, Hire Gauge was used more than 1,600 times. The PDF version was downloaded about 500 times. Clearly, it’s catching on; and I couldn’t resist checking it out.

What Hire Gauge showed me 
I run a small communications business in Connecticut. I road tested Hire Gauge to see how hiring a person with a disability would drive ROI for my firm.

What I found was astounding: if I were to hire a person with a disability at a $40,000 annual salary, I would receive up to $32,400 in tax credits, deductions and recruitment savings. If I hired a veteran with a service-connected disability, that number jumps to $44,300.

Let’s break it out: 
*Just for planning to hire a person with a disability, my firm is eligible for a $2,400 Federal Work Opportunities Tax Credit
*My business generates less than $1 million in revenue (sigh). But that qualifies us for a $5,000 Disabled Access Credit to defray the cost of providing access to workers with disabilities
*Hiring a person with a disability would require us to remove physical, structural or transportation barriers, but the Architectural Barrier Removal Tax Deduction would give me up to $15,000 a year to cover these expenses
*Based on my potential employee’s $40,000 annual salary, I could recoup $10,000 in recruitment and training costs if I hired through a vocational rehabilitation program, a federal-state program that helps people with disabilities prepare for, gain and retain employment
*If I were to hire a veteran with a service-connected disability, I become eligible for an added $2,400 Work Opportunity Tax Credit and a Veterans Affairs reimbursement of up to 50 percent of the employee’s salary over six months
*Hire Gauge dispelled the myth that it costs a lot to accommodate a worker with a disability, saying most accommodations run only about $500, tops

What Hire Gauge will show you 
Cost-savings opportunities to the tune of thousands of dollars, resulting in significant ROI for hiring qualified workers with disabilities. The exact amount of savings will depend on various factors, including your company size, your inclusive hiring plans and in what state you source your candidates. When you complete your “test,” Hire Gauge provides links to all the resources behind your numbers.

Hire Gauge outlines other benefits of hiring people with disabilities – including higher-than-average retention and attendance rates, as well as opportunities to tap into a new marketing segment with the purchasing power of more than $1 trillion a year. Not too shabby.

If you’re running a business, Hire Gauge is a must. So try it now. You’ll be thankful later.

Labor Dept. Sets 7% Hiring Goal for Disabled Workers

The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed a move it calls necessary for helping more people with disabilities get hired amid a dismal unemployment rate: A new rule that would require federal contractors and subcontractors to set a hiring goal of 7% for the employment of people with disabilities.

The new rule, if passed into law, would strengthen Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 that obligates federal contractors and subcontractors to ensure equal employment opportunities for qualified workers with disabilities. Up until now, there has not been a clearly defined rule in place, though companies that do business with the government have to show evidence of taking proactive steps to recruit workers with disabilities.

With four out of five workers with disabilities outside of the labor force, the Labor Dept. recognizes it has some work to do, starting with laws that can be enforced for the some 200,000 businesses that work with the government, totaling around $700 billion annually.

“Taxpayer dollars are given to businesses on the legal promise they would take affirmative action to build workforces,” says Patricia Shiu, director of the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. These dollars “were not to be used to discriminate,” she says.

The 7% goal is, the Labor. Dept. says, “aspirational” in nature, and is intended to start a discussion on what the appropriate number should be, which the agency believes should fall between 4% and 10%. The Dept. of Labor is seeking comments on its proposal until February 7, 2012.

“The real compliance, the real opportunity is created by all the steps that lead to this goal,” Shiu says. That includes actions employers make to post their jobs with disability-friendly job banks, recruit qualified candidates with disabilities at job fairs and events, provide outreach, collect data, keep records and make accommodation requests.

With one-quarter of American workers employed by the federal government in contracting occupations, the rule is intended to “have a ripple effect the entire labor force,” Shiu says. That’s a tall order, as hiring for compliance isn’t the same as hiring a person with a disability based on their abilities and skills alone. Private employers are not obligated to hire disabled workers, which leaves room for discrimination and contributes to the higher unemployment rate among this group.

The good news is that there are thousands of companies that provide goods and services to the government and would be impacted, and be called upon to help the disabled workforce find jobs. They include Fortune 500s like Dell, IBM, Merck, Pfizer, FedEx, AOL, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Caterpillar, Pepsi and Procter & Gamble. A list of contractors and their contract amounts can be found at USAspending.gov

Reflections on a Decade of Disability Employment Policy

by SECRETARY HILDA SOLIS on DECEMBER 14, 2011

“Thanks to ODEP’s hard work, the conversation has shifted away from whether people with disabilities can work to what tools and supports are needed to assist them in doing so,” said Secretary Solis during ODEP's 10th anniversary celebration.

Today, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy celebrated its 10th anniversary. In the decade since joining the DOL family, ODEP has been challenging outdated stereotypes and attitudes that keep people with disabilities out of the workplace, while aligning policy and practice to open the doors to employment opportunities.

At this juncture in ODEP’s history, it is important to reflect on the agency’s achievements and influence in developing disability employment-related policies and practices.

During the agency’s inaugural year, it instituted a number of initiatives that served as the foundation for programs that are ongoing today. These include the Job Accommodation Network, Workforce Recruitment Program and grants to fund training and demonstration projects to assist adults and youth with disabilities.

In 2008, due to the joint efforts of ODEP and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the very first time our nation started to collect statistical data about the employment rates of people with disabilities through the Current Population Survey. The addition of this data has allowed BLS to develop a Special Disability Tabulation similar to the information on the employment of women and minorities.

Last year, we launched the “Add Us In” Initiative to harness the enormous growth rate in the minority owned small business sector in order to improve employment opportunities for Americans with disabilities. Many of these businesses have shown a deep commitment to take care of their own, and working together, we are showing them how.

And just last week, DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs proposed a new rule to strengthen the affirmative action obligations of federal contractors and subcontractors to improve job opportunities for people with disabilities. The proposal would revise and update Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, thereby giving millions of Americans with disabilities a better and fairer shot at competing for jobs. It would also create greater clarity for businesses on what is expected of them, leveling the playing field so that employers who play by the rules aren’t at a disadvantage against those who shirk their legal responsibilities.



More than 200 stakeholders, staff members, and government leaders filled the department's Great Hall for the anniversary event.
Our proposed rule is historic; businesses with at least 50 employees and $50,000 or more in government contracts would be required to set a hiring goal of 7 percent for workers with disabilities. With Federal contractors and subcontractors accounting for nearly a quarter of the nation’s workforce, this proposed rule is a concrete step to ensuring that discouraged workers in the disability community have access to additional meaningful employment opportunities. I urge each of you to read our proposal and to submit comments on how we can make it better.

In addition, ODEP’s reach and leadership has extended beyond the Labor Department through the strong support of its mission by this Administration. As a result of the President’s Executive Order 13548, more federal job opportunities are available to persons with disabilities, and more people who attain disabilities while working for the Federal government will be provided with the support they need to return to work successfully. The Administration has also supported inclusion and improved outcomes of students with disabilities and the preparedness of teachers to meet diverse learners’ needs. The “Year of Community Living” was also launched to improve access to housing, community supports, and independent living opportunities. These are only a few examples.

Deputy Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris; Kathleen Martinez, assistant secretary of labor for ODEP; past assistant secretaries for the office; Tony Coelho, chairman of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities from 1994 to 2001; Becky Ogle, executive director of the Presidential Task Force on the Employment of Adults with Disabilities from 1998 to 2001; and individuals who have been the beneficiaries of ODEP’s work pose for a photo.

Deputy Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris; Kathleen Martinez, assistant secretary of labor for ODEP; past assistant secretaries for the office; Tony Coelho, chairman of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities from 1994 to 2001; Becky Ogle, executive director of the Presidential Task Force on the Employment of Adults with Disabilities from 1998 to 2001; and individuals who have been the beneficiaries of ODEP’s work pose for a photo.
While policy development will always be the cornerstone to systems change, a more tangible way we can assess our success is by examining how the policies we are promoting have had real impact on real people including:

Increasing federal employment of people with disabilities—like Joy Welan, a person with cerebral palsy and trial attorney at the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division who works every day to advance America’s promise of equal opportunity for all.
Ensuring that federal contractors uphold their commitment to a workplace inclusive of people with disabilities—like Helen Chang, a person who is blind and a web developer who designs custom systems to help various components of our nation’s military run more efficiently from a technology perspective.
Providing flexible work arrangements, such as customized employment, for people with disabilities—like Ricardo Thornton, a person with an intellectual disability and a library clerk who takes great pride in ensuring community residents are satisfied with his branch’s service and collection.
Ensuring that the nation’s civilian workplaces are welcoming to veterans with disabilities—like Matthew Staton, a veteran with visible and non-visible disabilities and a staff assistant to the Secretary of the Army, who helps ensure that military families get the support they need before, during and after deployment.
There is much to celebrate, but also much more to do. With our recovery picking up steam, it is important to reiterate upon ODEP’s 10th anniversary that when I speak of “good jobs for everyone” that includes people with disabilities. We know that there are many other folks out there like Mathew, Joy, Helen and Ricardo who want to work, and have unique insights, skills and talents that American employers need. ODEP’s work over the past 10 years has laid a solid foundation and I wholeheartedly believe that with ODEP’s talented and dedicated staff leading our efforts into the future, we can and will succeed.

NCAM Announces “Media Access Mobile”

The WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) has developed an impressive mobile system to enhance the experience for visitors to cultural institutions who are blind, deaf, hard-of-hearing or who speak languages other than English. The innovative technology from NCAM, dubbed “Media Access Mobile,” provides synchronized text and/or audio description in any combination of languages, all provided simultaneously, over a WiFi network and displayed on commercially available handheld devices (which can be provided to visitors on-site). Watch Media Access Mobile (MAM) in action in a new brief video. Contact ncam@wgbh.org to learn more.

Are You Becoming More Dependent on Your Wheelchair or Are You Becoming More Independent?

Written by sashasmithy


The air is heavy with a fearful anticipation. A doctor, most likely an older male, sits in a blue fold-out chair. He leans forward with a look on his face. He focuses his eyes on your two still legs. He asks leading questions about how far you can walk. You end up saying that you can walk further than you actually can. You make sure to remind him of the pain and the very many breaks needed.

“But you can walk a block, right?” he asks.

“I think so,” you say. He doesn’t try to figure if you mean that you can walk a block unassisted. It does not matter to him. What matters is that you walk. Walk.

“I’m afraid if I prescribe you a wheelchair that you’ll become dependent on it.”

There it is. The denial. The fear. Dependency is bad. It’s wrong, it’s unnatural. It’s as dangerous as being dependent on di-hydrogen monoxide.

You’re too shocked to fight. He’s the doctor. You’re the patient. The doctor knows best. And in your mind that squirming fear that you’re just not trying hard enough, that you’re just being lazy, that you’re not really like them, wraps around your brain and steals your confidence.

You keep walking for a few more weeks. Or a month. Or a year. Or for decades. But your walking is not a smooth, confident stride in which you strike your heel to the ground and lift off with your toes. It’s marred with frightful balance and pain issues. Every step is hesitant and carefully placed. Often, your arms do most of your walking, grasping onto canes, crutches, doorways and walls. You can walk. It’s told to you as if it is the most terrific thing on the face of the planet. Walking is better than world peace. It’s better than sunshine and rainbows and leprechauns. It’s better than winning the lottery. It’s far better than being wheelchair-dependent.

A smooth roll through life is improper. Immoral. It’s in the leagues of Satan. To voluntarily choose to use a wheelchair is as bad as going up to Lord Voldechair* and asking to be branded with the Dark Mark. Every day must be a fight to keep one’s soul cleansed. The only solution for a cleansed soul is to walk. Left foot then right foot. Or even right then left. But they must be feet striking the ground. Always.

Eventually, you give into temptation. It has never tasted so sweet. As you collapse your tired body into your chair, perfectly fitted to your body, you breathe a sigh of relief. This is freedom. An unnatural, immoral, and evil freedom. But freedom nonetheless. You offer your arm to Lord Voldechair who burns the Dark Mark onto it, a blackened wheelchair-user symbol. You practically drown your body by drinking sweet di-hydrogen monoxide while you start doing frightful things like grocery shopping on your own or going to the gym or the mall.

You roll through curb cuts, up ramps, and into handicap stalls. Willingly. You ask for wheelchair accessibility wherever you go. You pop wheelies and have impromptu races with your equally immoral friends. You walk less and less. There is less need. You can get around this way. With every day that passes you become more and more wheelchair-dependent. But you don’t care because you’re immoral and evil. You find yourself free. Independent while being dependent.

You have your one-way ticket to Hell. Don’t worry, it’s paved and wheelchair-accessible. Perfect for your wretched soul.

*Any resemblances to JKR’s Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter is purely coincidental. Purely. Absolute truth. Just as this is.

Creating an Internet that doesn’t discriminate against people with disabilities

Written by Ted Drake


While visiting South Korea for the International Conference on Digital Culture, Victor Tsaran was interviewed by Maeil Business Newspaper, the leading business newspaper in South Korea. He discussed the impact Yahoo! Accessibility is having on Yahoo! products and the future of accessible web applications. The article, 장애인 차별없는 인터넷 만들겠다, also highlights Proloque2Go and VizWiz as accessible mobile applications.



You can learn more with this English translation of the article:

[Interview] Creating an Internet that doesn’t discriminate against people with disabilities – Victor Tsaran, Yahoo! Senior Accessibility Program Manager

By Hwang, Ji-Hye, Maeil Business Newspaper

“In our lab in Sunnyvale, both developers and designers experience the Internet without using their hands or with their eyes covered. What matters is not the technology but the experience itself,” said, Victor Tsaran, Senior Manager at Yahoo! Inclusive Design Team, who oversees Web Accessibility policy at Yahoo!

Web Accessibility was created to ensure that the vulnerable members of society, including people with disabilities and the elderly, have access to information on the Internet and understand it like other users, without facing discrimination.

Tsaran stressed, “The technology is already available; however, the issue has not been well addressed, since developers cannot understand the actual user experience. This applies in all areas-technology, service development as well as marketing.”

He continued, “People with disabilities who have used the Internet always appreciate the Internet, saying that their outlook towards the world has changed completely.”

Since Tsaran himself is visually impaired, he is able to put his ideas into practice. He started using a computer for the first time in 1994 when he went to a school for the blind, which was a life-changing experience for him. With the computer, he realized that he could do many things, including reading a textbook, without having to rely on sighted friends’ help.

Since joining Yahoo! in 2005, he has played a proactive and vital role in evangelizing web accessibility. In particular, he has contributed to actively expanding the application of Screen Reader, a screen reading software, to more services of Yahoo! The name of the research lab where Tsaran works was previously ‘Yahoo! Accessibility Lab,’ but it was changed to ‘Yahoo! Inclusive Design Team’ recently to redefine the concept of accessibility. This indicates that Yahoo! intends to make web accessibility inherent in all activities.

He feels badly about the weak web accessibility in Korea today. The Korea Disability Discrimination Act, which was enacted in 2009, stipulates Web accessibility obligations, stating that every website in Korea, except for personal websites, should comply with web accessibility standards by 2015 for people with disabilities. However, except for central administrative agencies, the web accessibility regulation has not been followed properly.

He explained, “In the U.S., the 21st Century Video Accessibility Act was passed recently. Although The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 established the concept of accessibility, now there is a growing need for a new regulation, as information is increasingly available on the Internet.”

With this in mind, apps for people with disabilities are being developed actively in the U.S. For example, Proloquo2Go allows communication between speech-impaired people through iOS platform devices. In addition, there is VizWiz application that allows blind users to send images through a camera and receive quick answers to their questions by combing automatic image processing, anonymous web workers, and members of the user’s social network.

Although he is not able to see, Tsaran is opening a new world with his passion for music. “Web accessibility for music faces a big problem. I would like to lend my support to enhance accessibility.”

For those with disabilities, a new entrepreneurial spirit

November 12, 2011|By Kate Santich, Orlando Sentinel

If you think the job market is tough for the able-bodied, consider the case for those with disabilities.

In Florida, estimates of the jobless rate among disabled, working-age adults — including large numbers of young, severely injured soldiers returning to civilian life — run as high as 50 percent.

To address the problem, nonprofit organizations and government agencies recently have begun pushing an option that many with disabilities may have once thought unlikely: becoming entrepreneurs.

My Business Story

"We're seeing a major influx of people saying, 'What I really want is to start my own business,' " said Rogue Gallart, president of the Central Florida Disability Chamber, a nonprofit created in 2009. "We work with clients across the board to help them write their business plans and then assist them in finding the funding they need.

"Essentially, we're a business incubator."

With expert advice and grant money available for startups, the chamber already has helped write 17 business plans and has 20 more in the works. As the only organization of its kind in the state — and one of the few in the country — it now handles referrals from throughout Florida.

Businesses run the gamut from Internet-based companies to street-corner food carts to construction companies.

"They are wonderful," said Ayla Topgul, an expert seamstress and designer. After more than 40 years in the industry, she couldn't find work because shoulder, back and foot problems limited her mobility — and her job options.

"I am happy now."

Topgul lost her home and car during the years she spent trying to get someone else to hire her. Turned down on her initial application for federal disability payments — a relatively common occurrence — Topgul didn't bother appealing.

"What she really wanted was to work," said her daughter, Aydan Topgul. "She said to me, 'What am I supposed to do? I can't just sit around all day.' And she can't. She always has to be doing something."

The 63-year-old Topgul went first to Workforce Central Florida, which sent her to the state's Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, which ultimately referred her to the Central Florida Disability Chamber. There, the two-person staff analyzed her notion of starting her own business, wrote a business plan, secured a state grant of $85,000 for industrial sewing machines and other startup costs, and helped her find a storefront.

Opened last year, Angora Design Studio in Winter Park is still trying to make a name for itself, and it is just now at the break-even point. But Ayla Topgul is thrilled.

"I know I do good work for people," she said, pointing out meticulous alterations, handmade lace and a series of custom and intricate wedding gowns. Adds her daughter: "If you show her a picture, she can make it."

Keys to success

Family support is often critical to the success of a business venture, Gallart said. New businesses typically lack the means to hire outsiders, so having someone who will either pitch in for free — or help with living expenses while the entrepreneur is building a customer base — can be the difference between making and breaking a young enterprise.

Although the chamber's track record is too short to be definitive, so far about 95 percent of the businesses launched are still open.

Peter Schoemann, a Central Florida attorney who created a National Chamber of Commerce for Persons With Disabilities before realizing the issue needed a more localized approach, said Gallart's organization is "a fantastic place." In fact, his group is now getting requests from New York; Washington, D.C.; and Texas to replicate the Central Florida model.

But entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart, he cautions.

"You have to have willpower," he said. "It's one thing to have a good idea. It's another to be willing to put in the effort 24-7 to run your own business."

And for those receiving government disability payments, there is a strong disincentive, Schoemann said.

"It blows my mind the way the current system is set up: The moment you earn more than the ridiculously low income allowed, you're going to risk getting kicked off. Yet that's long before a new business owner can make enough money to survive."

'More determined'

On the flip side, Schoemann said, many entrepreneurs with disabilities are more determined than their typical able-bodied counterparts. Often, they've spent years — or even a lifetime — overcoming barriers.

For Bill Miller, a 35-year-old Lake County quadriplegic, the inability to walk, sit up, move his arms or take care of his own physical needs has only magnified his drive to succeed. Injured in a freakish fall at age 20, he belatedly returned to college online, completed a bachelor's degree in business administration with a 4.0 grade-point average and is now working on his master's degree in entrepreneurship.

(Story Continued HERE)