L’esprit d’entreprise chez les personnes handicapées auditives et visuelles a Yaoundé

Abstract

In Cameroon, people with disabilities are not most often seen as development actors. Despite the promulgation on April 13, 2010 of Law N° 2010/002 on the protection and promotion of people with disabilities, the relative proportion of unemployed people with disabilities is about twice as high as that of people without disabilities. One of the solutions to youth unemployment is facilitating their involvement in entrepreneurial activities. Our research aims to analyse the entrepreneurial dynamics among entrepreneurs with hearing and visual disabilities in Yaoundé, in order to identify the obstacles to entrepreneurship and make suggestions for their better inclusion in the socio-economic development activities of our country. To carry out this work, we opted for a qualitative methodology carried out according to a comprehensive and therefore interpretative approach, emphasizing life stories. Interview guides were conducted with twelve disabled entrepreneurs: six hearing-impaired entrepreneurs, three of whom passed and three who failed, and six visually impaired entrepreneurs, three of whom passed and three who failed. The research was based on the theoretical model of entrepreneurial motivations of Giacomin et al., enriched by the theories of stigmatisation of Goffmann and the model of entrepreneurial advent of Shapero and Sockol. The results reveal that entrepreneurs with hearing and visual disabilities are more motivated by push factors than by pull factors. They create a business to empower themselves, out of a desire to change mentalities or to avoid precariousness and unemployment. Obstacles to entrepreneurship for people with disabilities have been identified at the level of administrative procedures for business creation, financing difficulties, discrimination and disability. To overcome these obstacles, suggestions were made: the public authorities should, among other things, pay more attention to the application of legal instruments in favor of entrepreneurship for people with disabilities. Associations of persons with disabilities should raise awareness among their peers about the opportunities offered by the State through various programs, as well as the legal environment. Civil society should avoid all forms of negative stigma and discrimination and adopt a more humanistic attitude towards people with disabilities. Keywords: