According to the U.S. Census Department, approximately fifty-four million Americans are disabled, or have considered themselves disabled at one time or another. While this number represents a large percentage of the workforce, the vast majority of individuals with disabilities are unemployed. In fact, about seventy percent of Americans with disabilities who want to work are unemployed. Of the remaining thirty percent, only a fraction is gainfully employed full-time.

As a result, people with disabilities are almost twice as likely to start their own businesses as their non-disabled counterparts.

Only eight percent of non-disabled workers are self-employed, whereas fourteen percent of workers with disabilities are self-employed.

As an entrepreneur with a disability, I fall into the latter group. Unable to find gainful employment in my community, I sought to create my own place. The turning point came when two years of aggressive work search that yielded nothing finally led me to consider a receptionist