A panellist said social enterprise should sit between human rights and business

The objection one panellist at the 2023 Autistic Pride Day Symposium raised to the social enterprise sector was about where the sector places itself. Social enterprise, the panellist said, positions itself between charity and business. For disabled social entrepreneurs, that position sets up a relationship in which things are done to them, and the panellist called it very paternalistic. The proposal was that the sector position itself between human rights and business instead.

The exchange started with Kyriakos Gold, who hosted the session. He said he struggled with the system. To him there was no such thing yet as an autistic entrepreneurship sector, because it was too small, and the social sector he worked in was very systemic. He said he did not know the right word for it and asked whether it was colonial, Anglo, or simply a white system, and that whatever it was called, he struggled to work his way through it as an entrepreneur. He added that since he had the disability label, people were nicer to him, and asked whether others had seen changes.