Entrepreneurial challenges for the blind and visually impaired

Abstract

The lack of access to a suitable job for disabled people more than other members of the society can have negative consequences at different levels of their personal, family and social life, and this is while their efforts for self-employment and entrepreneurship are faced with many obstacles.This article aims to identify the most important challenges based on the results of semi-structured interviews with 12 successful blind and partially sighted people in this field and provide effective solutions to overcome the obstacles ahead or at least manage and mitigate them. For this purpose, after a general description of the issue of disability, it deals with the conceptual and theoretical framework of disability and entrepreneurship and values, the principles and requirements of each, in the form of a qualitative study. Based on the findings of this study, the most important employment challenges for the blind and visually impaired are:The society's negative attitude towards their ability, the low level of social, economic and professional support, some negative and inappropriate personality traits for career success and the insufficiency of appropriate knowledge and skills, lack of access to the required technologies and lack of access to economic and social capital.