Grant supports platform infrastructure connecting disability-focused innovators with capital, research partnerships, and resources
BOSTON, MA — June 2026 — disAbled Life Foundation today announced it has received a $60,000 grant from Ability Central, a philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing access for people who are deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent. The grant covers the period of May 1, 2026 through May 31, 2027, and will support disAbled Life Foundation’s work as a coordination platform connecting disability innovation to the capital and resources required to bring solutions to scale.
Ability Central is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with more than 20 years of service and over $17.5 million in grants issued to more than 179 organizations. The organization supports community-driven solutions through strategic grantmaking, partnerships, and trusted resources for the disability community.
The relationship between Ability Central and disAbled Life Foundation originated at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where the two organizations identified a shared commitment to treating disability not as a charitable cause, but as an infrastructure and investment challenge.
“The disability innovation space suffers from three structural problems that have persisted for decades: how the space is perceived, the absence of connective infrastructure, and capital that never reaches the right innovators at the right stage,” said Paul Kent, founder and Executive Director of disAbled Life Foundation.
“Ability Central understood immediately that this is an infrastructure problem, not a charity problem. This grant is one of the first of its kind to fund the coordination layer the ecosystem actually needs.”
The grant will support continued development of disAbled Life Foundation’s core program, the Innovation Gateway, which operates as a continuous, non-cohort acceleration platform connecting disability-focused innovators across hardware, software, prosthetics, robotics, mobility, AI, care planning, adaptive apparel, and a wide array of assistive technologies to the mission-aligned philanthropic, investment, and social capital required to move from concept to commercialization to scale.
“We are incredibly proud to partner with disAbled Life Foundation. Through this partnership, we are not just providing funding, we are investing in a vision that directly aligns with our mission at Ability Central to remove barriers and amplify accessibility. It is truly inspiring to see such a dedicated effort to surface, vet, and accelerate the high-impact solutions that our community so desperately needs.
–Griffen Stapp, Executive Director, Ability Central
The grant arrives at a moment of accelerating momentum for disAbled Life Foundation. Its operational arm, disAbled Life Alliance, was recently named to the 2026 Forbes Accessibility 200, recognizing the world’s leading innovators and impact-makers advancing accessibility across 23 countries—validation of the platform’s growing role in the global disability innovation ecosystem.
“The massive amounts of unmet needs and lack of awareness still exist because the ecosystem has been operating in a bubble,” Kent added. “This grant is about popping that bubble.”
About Ability Central
Ability Central is a philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing access for people who are deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent. Established in 2003, the organization supports community-driven solutions through strategic grantmaking, partnerships, and trusted resources, and has issued more than $17.5 million in grants to over 179 organizations across more than 20 years of service. For more information, visit abilitycentral.org.
About disAbled Life Foundation and disAbled Life Alliance
disAbled Life is a dual-entity platform organization comprising the disAbled Life Foundation (a fiscally sponsored 501(c)(3)) and disAbled Life Alliance (a public benefit corporation). Together, they operate as coordination infrastructure for the disability and accessibility innovation ecosystem, surfacing innovators, connecting them to capital, and building the partnerships required to bring solutions to market at scale. For more information, visit disabledlifealliance.com.
Media Contact:
media@disabledlifealliance.com
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