If Silicon Valley Can Build Rockets, It Can Build Belonging: Stop Treating Disability as a Side Project

Author: Dr. Charlene Bennett

Innovation has become shorthand for disruption, unicorns, and exit multiples. But what if the real test of innovation is whether it includes the people the market keeps leaving behind? I believe that when engineers, investors, and designers make inclusion central, they can unlock enormous human and economic potential that the tech industry is still allergic to recognizing.

Silicon Valley sits at the global center of the test. The Bay Area absorbed $90 billion in venture capital last year, a concentration of capital and talent few regions can rival. Yet this flow of resources rarely finds its way into technologies built for people whose communication, mobility, or cognitive profiles do not match the “average user.”

I have spent over four decades watching systems that promise care become the very structures that exclude. Today, more than 1 in 4 American adults has some type of disability. This is not a fringe group. It is nearly 30% of the adult population. These are individuals, families, workers, and consumers whose lived experiences shape every corner of our society and economy.

Here is the blunt case for change: disability-inclusive design is an economic strategy as much as a moral one. There is a vast, under-recognized disposable income and market influence among people with disabilities and their families. Reports show that the disposable income of people with disabilities in North America and Europe is in the trillions. Inclusion is a market signal.

Practical innovation is not theoretical. Look at eye-tracking systems that let people who cannot speak generate speech and control their environment with a glance. These tools are deployed, tested, and transforming lives, enabling people with severe motor impairments to participate in conversations, work, and culture. The research and commercial products are mature enough that mainstream designers could be embedding these capabilities across devices instead of isolating them in specialized markets.

Or consider artificial intelligence (AI) that learns non-standard speech. For people with dysarthria or other speech differences, mainstream speech-to-text fails them. Companies using adaptive machine learning can turn private, imperfect speech into a usable interface, unlocking smart-home control, employment opportunities, and social connections. These are tools that support independence, and they represent untapped opportunities for innovation in mainstream tech.

Why, then, is inclusive design not at the center of our research and development (R&D) roadmaps? Part of the answer is structural. Investors chase scale and predictability. Product teams optimize for the median user, and agencies responsible for services are underfunded and siloed. But the deeper problem is a moral and imaginative one: engineers often design for what they already see in their networks, not for people who are systematically excluded from those networks. That is a leadership failure.

There are also opportunity costs to inaction. If the tech sector fails to prioritize inclusive innovation, the consequences will be massive. Companies will miss a vast market, fail to retain customers who demand accessible experiences, and alienate a growing workforce, including neurodivergent minds whose approaches to pattern and problem-solving can be engines of creativity when workplaces are designed to include them. Moreover, regulatory and reputational risks grow the longer accessibility is treated as an afterthought rather than an integral feature.

What should leaders do? Start by changing incentives. Fund R&D that measures success by adoption across diverse ability profiles. Hire people with lived experience into product and leadership roles, not as token advisors but as decision-makers. It is also important to partner with specialists and clinicians to co-design and make procurement choices that reward accessibility in measurable ways. Remember that the technological tools already exist. It is commitment and imagination that we lack.

This is not a moral crusade. It is practical leadership. Inclusion expands markets, reduces friction, and builds products that serve more people more thoughtfully. If you can scale a global AI model or a self-driving platform, you can design a user experience that hears different voices, responds to different bodies, and honors different minds.

If the Valley wants to consider itself the global laboratory of the future, then let it invent in a way where “user” includes everyone. Reframe your key performance indicators. Do not ask how fast a feature rolls out or how high the valuation climbs. Instead, ask who it serves. The companies that answer that question will discover that inclusive innovation is the next frontier of competitive advantage.

About the Author

Dr. Charlene Bennett has dedicated her career to championing the rights of individuals with disabilities, focusing on creating inclusive, person-centered services that promote independence and community engagement for those with complex needs. She co-founded the Individual Advocacy Group (IAG), an organization committed to delivering residential, therapeutic, and vocational support that empowers people to lead fulfilling lives.