Perkins and Adaptation Ventures Advance a New Path for DisabilityTech Investment

Collaboration breaks down barriers for DisabilityTech startups to get funding

WATERTOWN, Mass., Jan. 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Perkins Howe Innovation Center announced a new collaboration designed to solve a long-standing problem for the disability community: bringing more accessible products and services to market. The new collaboration with Adaptation Ventures will unite DisabilityTech innovators with early-stage investors, accelerating the development of accessible products and services that people with disabilities need.

"Investment in DisabilityTech companies is growing, but access to 'first money in' remains a barrier for founders," said Sandy K. Lacey, Executive Director of the Perkins Howe Innovation Center. "Innovation doesn't happen without resources. By formalizing this strategic relationship with Adaptation Ventures, we can help move more early capital into the sector and support companies at the moment it matters most."

By aligning their complementary programs, the Perkins Howe Innovation Center and Adaptation Ventures create new pathways for promising DisabilityTech startups to succeed. Perkins will draw on its connections across the disability and startup ecosystems to identify and refer high-potential companies, while Adaptation Ventures - a pioneering pre-seed VC fund exclusively focused on DisabilityTech - will support founders with early capital, strategic guidance, and investor networks.

"Working closely with the Perkins Howe Innovation Center allows us to engage earlier and more meaningfully with founders who are solving real accessibility challenges," said Brittany Palmer, Managing Partner at Adaptation Ventures. "Perkins' longstanding leadership in disability innovation makes them a natural collaborator as we work to ensure early investments translate into meaningful impact."

This announcement follows the release of Perkins' latest market research, "Defining DisabilityTech, Volume II: The Accessible Innovation Opportunity," unveiled earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show. Drawing on analysis from McKinsey research, the report highlights several defining trends shaping the sector, including:

• DisabilityTech Is Entering a Breakthrough Phase: Early-stage (through Series A) DisabilityTech investment grew from $818 million in 2022 to $1.1 billion in 2024, signaling rising mainstream momentum.
• Early Capital Is Still the Bottleneck: Despite growth, DisabilityTech founders continue to cite first-money-in funding as their biggest barrier.
• AI Makes Accessibility Non-Negotiable: As AI becomes foundational, accessibility must be built in early—or exclusion will scale with the technology.

Together, Perkins and Adaptation Ventures aim to attract new investors, support emerging founders, and reduce friction points that slow the path from idea to impact. By connecting innovators with aligned capital and expertise, the collaboration will help bring accessible products and services to market for the 1 in 4 people worldwide who live with a disability.

About the Perkins Howe Innovation Center
The Perkins Howe Innovation Center—recognized on the Forbes Accessibility 100 as one of the "biggest innovators and impact-makers in accessibility"—unlocks the power of entrepreneurs and the disability community to create solutions to real-world accessibility challenges. The Center serves as a convener and catalyst of innovation by bringing together people with disabilities, startups, investors, researchers, and industry leaders to spotlight lived experience and solve everyday accessibility challenges. Learn more at Perkins.org/Innovation.

About Adaptation Ventures
Adaptation Ventures is a pioneering pre-seed fund dedicated to fueling tech innovation in disability, neurodivergence, and accessibility. It backs mission-driven founders building venture-scalable solutions for the nearly 2 billion people who live with disabilities and control $18 trillion in annual purchasing power. Adaptation's Managing Partners, Brittany Palmer and Rich Palmer, have been on all sides of the table - as exited founders, global operators, and leading early-stage investors - and offer personal insight as disability advocates with lived experience ranging from limb difference and traumatic brain injury to neurodivergence. Its portfolio companies represent a range of sectors and industries, and benefit from a robust community of investors, experts, and hands-on guidance to help them scale. The Managing Partners have also worked to make the fund more accessible to new and seasoned investors, with smaller investment minimums. Adaptation sees disability innovation as the catalyst for a new era of entrepreneurship - one that delivers both purpose and performance. Interested investors, founders, and others can learn more on the Adaptation Ventures website.

About Perkins School for the Blind
Perkins helps children with disabilities find their place in the world. For nearly 200 years, Perkins has been the global leader in education services for children and young adults with disabilities with visual impairments. From its renowned Massachusetts-based school, Perkins develops best-in-class teaching practices and shares them worldwide—through teacher training, sustainable education programs, and accelerating innovation for people with disabilities. With a mission to make quality learning accessible to the 240 million children with disabilities globally and reached almost two million children last year. Perkins is continually innovating to meet the evolving needs of children, families, and educators—breaking down barriers and building brighter futures, one student at a time. Perkins.org

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SOURCE Perkins School for the Blind