Breaking Barriers: The Economic Realities of Self‐Employed Black Women With Disabilities

ABSTRACT Despite the compounded effects of race, ethnicity, gender, and disability, Black women have continued to achieve significant progress in increasing labor market participation and creating economic opportunities, yet little is known about their self‐employment outcomes. Guided by disability critical race theory (DisCrit), this report explored the prevalence of disability among Black women who were self‐employed in the United States and explored the relationship between disability status and income. We analyzed the responses of 91 Black women with disability found in the Household Pulse Survey data collected between August 20 and September 16, 2024. For the epidemiological descriptive statistics, we computed weighted precents, which allows us to represent the estimated national prevalence of demographic characteristics for Black adult women in the United States who were self‐employed at the time the data were collected. The ordinal logistic regression model assessed income differences by disability status. Findings indicated that 43.9% of self‐employed Black women had at least one disability, 66.9% experienced a mental health condition, 27% had visual impairments, 11.8% had mobility, and 11.3% had auditory disabilities. The regression analysis indicated there was no statistically significant relationship between income and disability status except for increased income being associated with the presence of “worry.” Furthermore, this report provides preliminary insight into Black women with disabilities engaging in self‐employment.