- On the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, impact investors are looking at disability inclusion funding as the next frontier.
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Marking the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) this week, activist Judith Heumann (also the heroine of a groundbreaking Drunk History episode) wrote that even today, “too many people view disability as something to loathe or fear.” Data from the Disability Equality Index shows that more disabled people in the workforce improves financial outcomes — which is why digital accessibility, boosting Internet use for those with compromised sight or dexterity, may become the next frontier for impact investors. Funds like the Disability Impact Fund (part of the Global Development Incubator) are focusing on developing assistive technologies and ensuring that they are available to all of the one billion disabled people on the planet.
The ADA was written in the pre-Internet era and intended to regulate the physical world, not the digital one. And while tech has led advances for disability inclusion, there are still both old and new barriers that entrepreneurs around the world are working to solve. Let’s keep funding them.
In Other News: Wefunder demos, anti-COVID seaweed
Meet the Black entrepreneurs challenging the status quo of Europe’s startup scene. Deutsche Bank joins BNP Paribas and the Royal Bank of Scotland in plotting its exit from coal. Equity crowdfunding platform Wefunder announced its COVID-19 Demo Day startups. Apparently there is a coronavirus-fighting seaweed. Companies like Microsoft are planting trees to pull their decades of emissions out of the air. The U.N. wants post-COVID recovery in the Asia-Pacific region to include social enterprises.
Levity Break
Better save that Anthony Fauci rookie card.
