Disability tech startups kill the cynic in me

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The Perkins School for the Blind has identified over 1,400 companies that are designing and building products specifically for people with disabilities. I met a handful of them at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, and I am impressed by both these startups and their founders. — Anna

A real sector

A broad range of sectors were represented at TechCrunch Disrupt’s Startup Battlefield this year, from fintech and AI to legal tech and health tech. But there’s a group of startups that particularly piqued my curiosity: disability tech startups.

With 16% of the global population living with a disability, the market value of the disability tech market in 2023 is estimated at $25 billion, and could reach $37 billion by 2029, according to a white paper presented at Disrupt by Howe Innovation Center Executive Director Sandy Lacey.