When Amy Wright and her husband found out that 70 percent of adults with intellectual and physical disabilities do not have jobs, they were inspired to change that. After all, two of the pair’s four children live with Down syndrome.
Bitty and Beau’s Coffee, Wright’s popular North Carolina coffee shop, is named after their kids and employs 40 people with disabilities.

“Creating this has given people a way to interact with people with disabilities that (they) never had before,” she said. “This is a safe place where people can test the waters and realize how much more alike we are than different.”