Affirmative Businesses

Affirmative businesses provide employment opportunities for people with disabilities. They operate as regular businesses, producing goods and services for sale within the broader community. Affirmative businesses have typically emerged from nonprofit organizations and have developed through a collaboration between people with disabilities, vocational rehabilitation professionals, and businesspeople. This collaboration is directed toward the creation of a business organization that is sensitive to the needs and aspirations of persons with disabilities, constructs a working environment that can meet diverse needs for training and job accommodations, and operates using sound business principles and practices. In this way, affirmative businesses are structured to neutralize the individualism and competition that disadvantage individuals with disabilities in the open labor market.

The exact nature of an affirmative business will depend on the interests and skills of the potential workforce and on the market prospects in the local community. Examples include businesses that have focused on industrial subcontracting, cafés and catering, desktop publishing and video production, car washes, greenhouses, laundry services, and retail convenience and gift outlets. Since they are designed as true businesses, they provide workers with either the opportunity for long-term employment or a place to develop their work capacities before they move on to other jobs in the open labor market.

The effectiveness of the affirmative business is measured by its commercial success. A primary objective is to reduce reliance on funding from government or philanthropic organizations. They are also expected to offer wages that are consistent with standards in the open labor market and opportunities for advancement. Effectiveness is also measured by the extent to which the working environment facilitates participation and ownership by individuals with disabilities.

The affirmative business approach to job development has been applied broadly to people who are disadvantaged with respect to employment. John Durand is widely credited for its application to persons with disabilities in the 1960s. The approach is one of many commercially oriented ventures that attempt to develop business practices that promote a socially responsible and sustainable economy.

Community integration in this employment approach is realized at the level of the business. Employees connect with the broader community in the day-to-day context of offering goods and services to the public, ordering supplies, and participating in local business networks. It is expected that the financial rewards and personal connections made in the context of work will facilitate opportunities for community participation outside of the business.

Critics of the approach have argued that this is segregated employment and is minimized as a credible [Page 67]business model in the open labor market. There are also concerns that these businesses typically provide only entry-level jobs with poor prospects for financial compensation and opportunities for advancement. Finally, it has been argued that the structure of the organization will favor employment of professionals from the human services sectors in key management positions, undermining full ownership by persons with disabilities.