Self-employment can be a viable option for disabled people who want to work, but have few opportunities to find jobs, says Urban Miyares, president of the Disabled Businesspersons Association.

Miyares, who is blind, started the San Diego-based nonprofit association in 1985. The group helped some 3,000 people last year who needed technical assistance in starting or running their own businesses. A businessman himself who has run restaurants, a magazine and a steel fabrication plant, Miyares and his group have assembled a corps of 12,000 disabled business executives and entrepreneurs who provide free advice to clients across the country either by telephone or e-mail.

The association found a natural partner in Acción San Diego, the micro-lender seeking to provide capital to business owners who are unable to qualify for loans at traditional lenders such as banks.

Many disabled people have no work history, no assets or the financial track record that banks demand of loan recipients, says Miyares, and that’s where Acción comes in: “They look first at the character of the person and the viability of the venture,” says Miyares.

Miyares is an Acción board member, and he says his association uses the micro-lender as a resource for the people who want to start a business, but can’t get a loan on their own. “Acción fills that gap. It’s a valuable resource. It gets their foot in the door to become self-employed, taxpaying members of society.”