Above: a visual impression of the Deaf Enterprise Workshop at UCLan (Preston, UK).
Deaf Enterpreneurs?
Can deaf people, specifically: deaf people who use a sign language as their first and preferred language, become successful entrepreneurs?
Yes, they can! On this website, you can find examples from across the EU member states.
Do deaf entrepreneurs have to deal with more barriers than most mainstream people who want to start their own business?
Yes, they do.
The Deaf Enterprise Project
The long term objective of the Deaf Enterpise Project: to enable more deaf sign language users in EU member states to become successful entrepreneurs.
At the start of the project, very little was known about deaf entrepreneurs in the EU member states.
There are no national or transnational networks, no support centres for deaf entrepreneurs. Deaf Enterprise was the first transnational project that focused on entrepreneurship and the deaf community in the EU member states.
Deaf Enterprise was a Erasmus+ project, undertaken by a consortium of 5 partners from 4 EU countries. It was a 2-year project that ended 31 August, 2018.
What we did ...
During the project,
- we collected data on deaf entrepreneurs, and the barriers that deaf entrepreneurs have to deal with, by means of personal interviews and an online survey;
- we developed a curriculum for a basic entrepreneurship training that meets the needs and preferences of deaf sign language users;
- we developed support resources: two glossaries and a database of relevant websites and networks;
- we organized a workshop with deaf trainers for a first evaluation of the curriculum and our resources;
- we tested the curriculum during 5-day workshops in the UK and in Italy; and
- we posted all of our output on this website, for everyone to use.