Hadley: The Hidden Gem for Blind Entrepreneurs

Reprinted from my personal blog.

After the economic bust in 2008 many people went into business for themselves, and while it is always a good idea to be educated on the nuances of planning and launching a new business, you don’t necessarily need a full college degree.

These days online education is nothing unique. Anyone can take advantage of sites like Khan Academy and Udemy to take courses in specific topics. In fact, for anyone, blind or sighted, interested in various online learning options, check out this helpful article from The Simple Dollar. For blind computer users, however, it’s nice to count on a service like Hadley you know is always accessible.

If you’re blind, interested in starting a business, and have not given Hadley some thought, it’s time to reconsider it.

From their website:

Founded in 1920 by William Hadley and Dr. E.V.L. Brown, Hadley offers courses free of charge to its blind and visually impaired students and their families and affordable tuition to blindness professionals. Today, Hadley is the largest provider of distance education for people who are blind or visually impaired around the world, serving more than 10,000 students annually in all 50 states and 100 countries. Hadley is also the largest educator of braille worldwide. A 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, the school relies on contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations to fund its programs.

I want to turn your attention to Hadley’s Forsythe Center for Employment and Entrepreneurship. The curriculum is broken into modules with specific concentrations ranging from social security, tax and accounting to legal, marketing, management and communications. While I have not seen any prerequisite requirements, I myself began, and would strongly recommend, the Self-employment with a Minimal Investment course as a starting point, because it provides a great panoramic picture of planning a business strategy.

Among other online courses, they offer:

• Accounting for Small Business
• Business Communications
• Business Ethics
• Business Fundamentals
• Business Insurance
• Business Law 1
• Business Law 2
• Business Writing
• Market Research
• Marketing: Conveying a Message

The online courses are all fully accessible with screen readers. It’s possible to stop and come back to your previous place in a module. The exams are laid out in a straightforward manner, and when you’re asked to submit assignments from your computer, the instructions are straightforward.

In fact, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with my Hadley experience. For no good reason, a dim part of me figured the courses were either too basic to be of any value or the instructors would be average at best. On the contrary, the class material has always been of solid caliber. The exams are well-balanced, and the instructors have always shown a firm handle of their subject. Without exception, they have been very responsive to e-mails and phone calls.

If anything, I sometimes wonder if Hadley is selling itself short. I take courses around my busy work schedule. If I had to pay a tuition fee, even a nominal amount, I might take my pace a little more seriously. The quality of instruction is so solid that you wonder if there's a catch.

From the novice entrepreneur to the veteran, I think there’s plenty to be taken away from Hadley’s business-oriented adult learning curriculum. It proved beneficial in helping me draft a marketing strategy and revamp my overall business plan for my freelance business. I wish they would advertise their services a little better. I might very well be living under a rock, but I think Hadley could be making the mistake that blind people everywhere know it exists and what it offers.

If you’ve been talking about starting a full or part-time business but never got around to planning it; Hadley’s courses are an excellent means of taking that first crucial step.