ATU792 – Ability Lane with Brittany Palmer

Hi, this is Brittany Palmer. I’m the co-founder and CEO of Ability Lane, and this is your Assistive Technology Update.

Hello, and welcome to your Assistive Technology Update, a weekly dose of information that keeps you up-to-date on the latest developments in the field of technology designed to assist individuals with disabilities and special needs. I’m your host, Josh Anderson, with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana.

Welcome to Episode 792 of Assistive Technology Update. It is scheduled to be released on July 31, 2026. On today’s show, we are super-excited to welcome Brittany Palmer from Ability Lane to the show. She’s here to tell us how Ability Lane is connecting creators, users, funders, and more all together to make sure that great assistive technology products get out to the folks that can use them. We’re also joined by our friends from BridgingApps, with an app worth mentioning.

Listeners, whether you’re new here or whether this is your 792nd episode of Assistive Technology Update, we always do thank you for listening. And don’t forget to reach out. Give us a call on our listener line at 317-721-7124, or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. We always love to hear from you with your questions, comments, suggestions, or really just anything assistive tech and knowledge-based. But enough about us, listeners, let’s go ahead and get on with the show.

So we got a quick story from over at NPR. It’s written by Jonaki Mehta, and it’s titled Screens Are Leaving Schools Fast, Though Some Students with Disabilities Rely On Them. I won’t dig too much into the story. I’ll put a link so that you can easily go get to it, but I know this is kind of a rising problem across the country. As we look at schools, screens were introduced there. A lot of kids use Chromebooks, maybe MacBooks, iPads, just I guess kind of depending on your school district and which manner of technology they’ve implemented.

There’s definitely a lot of backlash against these just because kids are on the computer or the screen maybe all day, or a little bit too much. Again, whether here nor there, I’m sure it’s different school system by school system, teacher by teacher, everything else, but it is kind of just showing that maybe it’s a little bit too much screen time once it’s mixed in. Again, that really is probably up for debate and not something we have to talk about right now, but this is unfortunately one of those circumstances where some people do rely on this technology and the accessibility features built into it.

Think of how accessible an iPad, or a Chromebook, or some of these other devices are, some of the different features: dictation, text-to-speech, other kinds of features maybe to help folks write, or put their thoughts together, or just lots and lots of different things. I mean, I suppose we could talk about AT all day. We do on this show. But of course, the problem is that this is becoming the norm in some different places where they’re trying to pull back on the technology, and sometimes it’s not just technology, it’s also an accommodation.

So just making sure that people are allowed to use the technology that allows them to learn is extremely, extremely important. I guess, listeners, what are your thoughts on it, on screen time in the classroom, on its effect on individuals and students with disabilities? What are your thoughts on these things? Anyway, definitely let us know. Reach out. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Let us know what your thoughts are on this, but I’ll put a link to the story itself over in the show notes so that you can go and read about it whenever you get a chance.

Listeners, as you may know here at INDATA, we do full day trainings all throughout the year. I’m very excited to announce that our next full day training is coming up on August 26, 2026, and it is over wearable assistive technology. This training will be in person here at Easterseals Crossroads in Indianapolis, Indiana, but we will be streaming it. So if you are not able to make it here to our office, well, I’d say try to find a way, but if you’re not able to make it here to the office, you can log in online. You do have to register beforehand, and I will put a link down in the show notes so that you can easily get over and register.

With that link, you can also get into the archive of our previous full day training. So if there’s something you want to learn more about or maybe a training that you attended that you want to watch again, you can always find them in there. As far as our wearable AT training coming up on August 26th, this training will be over all kinds of different wearable assistive technology for health and wellness, for control, to help with vision, community access, work, and a whole myriad of other needs. If you’re here in person, you’ll get to try out some of these amazing accommodations. If you’re online, we’ll make sure to try to keep you as involved as possible.

If you happen to need continuing education units for certifications or other needs, you can get CEUs by attending our trainings. So whether you’re new to assistive technology, an old pro, or just looking to learn a little bit more, please do attend our INDATA full day training coming up on August 26, 2026 over wearable assistive technology. The training will be from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Again, it will be in person here at Easterseals Crossroads and also online streamed via Zoom. You have to register in order to attend the training, and I will put a link down in the show notes to go and get to the registration. All of us here at INDATA look forward to seeing you there either in person or remotely on August 26th for wearable assistive technology full day training.

Listeners, next up on the show, we’re very excited to welcome back Ale Gonzalez from BridgingApps, with an app worth mentioning.

This is Ale Gonzalez with BridgingApps, and this is an app worth mentioning. This week’s featured app is called Tiimo To-Do List and AI Planner. Tiimo is a visual planning and task management app designed to help users organize their day, build routines, and stay on track with daily responsibilities. The app combines schedules, to-do lists, timers, reminders, and AI-powered planning tools into on easy-to-use platform. Its visual design and step-by-step task support can make planning feel more manageable and less overwhelming.

Our favorite features were the visual schedules and customizable reminders. Tiimo breaks tasks into clear actionable steps and provides helpful prompts throughout the day, making it especially useful for individuals who benefit from structure, routine, and time management support. The app is intuitive, flexible, and encourages users to build habits that work for their unique needs. Tiimo is available for both Android and iOS devices, and offers free access with optional premium features available. For more information on this app and others like it, visit www.bridgingapps.org.

Today, listeners, to finish out the month of July, join me as we take a walk down Ability Lane with Brittany Palmer. She’s here to tell us all about Ability Lane and how it is helping get accessible products to those that need the most. Brittany, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Josh. It’s great to be here.

Yeah, it is great to have you on. Before we start talking about Ability Lane, could you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?

Sure. I am Brittany Palmer. I currently live in Connecticut with my husband Rich, who’s also my business partner, and our dog Atlas. I was born with a bilateral below elbow limb difference, and that has kind of shaped my focus on this space to what I’m currently doing.

Nice. Very cool. Not that this has anything to do, but what kind of dog is Atlas?

He is a Burmie doodle.

Oh, perfect. We have a poodle at home and we absolutely love him.

Oh yeah, they’re great.

Yeah, my friend had a Burmese mountain dog. He was great too, so I love when you mix the two together. Not that that has anything to do with what we’re talking about, but just as one dog lover to another. Awesome. Awesome.

Yes, of course.

Well, Britney, the real reason we had you on today was to talk about Ability Lane. So I guess just start with kind of big picture, what is it?

Ability Lane is a platform that connects founders who are building accessible technology for disability, for neurodivergence, aging, and caregiving to community members who might be looking for products in any of those spaces, as well as investors who might be interested in investing in those spaces, or foundations who are looking for grantee opportunities.

Where did the idea for Ability Lane come from?

Rich and I, we are the managing partners of Adaptation Ventures, which is a pre-seed VC focused on maximizing human independence, potential, and dignity. We invest in disability, neurodivergence, and accessible technology across pretty much any industry. As we really got into this space and started making investments and speaking with founders, we noticed there is a big gap in a community for this space.

We determined that if we could give founders access to people in the community and also the community access to founders, then products that these founders are building will be better. They’ll have more community input, be able to do faster iterations, and get things to market that are more of what their customers want to see. In the same vein, in the venture capital world, a lot of investors still view disability and accessible tech as a niche market that does not have a lot of people in it and does not have a lot of money associated with it.

I’m sure a lot of people listening to this podcast right now will know how wrong that is, how misguided it is. And so, we really wanted to give investors an opportunity to see companies building in this space, to see companies that are looking for funding so that they are more familiar with the types of companies that are coming to market and hopefully garner more interest in investing in this space.

Nice. You’re really bringing everybody to the table. You’re bringing those founders to the table, the investors, and then also the users. I know in getting to talk to some of the founders and the folks that make assistive technology on here, of course funding can always be an issue, but also just being able to get it out and have people test it, have people try it, have people actually see what am I missing as somebody who maybe doesn’t have that need. I’ve got this great idea, this great thing, but what am I missing? What am I not doing right? That’s awesome. You’re bringing them all to the same place.

Yeah. It’s particularly important at the early stages, and we have a way for companies to post products and dictate that they are in the early stages of development so that they can get that early feedback, which is so important. Sometimes founders miss that part. They’re so engrossed in their personal experience and building that sometimes they forget about the customers. And so, this really helps bring that together.

Oh yeah, definitely. Definitely. I guess to kind of expand on that, what kinds of insights can the developers and founders get from the users that are using Ability Lane?

Yeah, so we have a couple of different tools for founders. Founders can, one, they can list their products, and users can go in and they can search by market segment of disability or by industry to find products that they’re looking for. Founders can also post surveys and have a number of questions that they ask, and the users can go into the Insights section, is what we call it. They can take surveys in different segment areas that founders have posted to give their views on things.

So whether that’s pricing, or the look and feel of something, or just understanding what different things they’d want to see with a particular product, or even as easy as would you give this a try? They can post those as surveys. Then on the other side of that is our user testing connections. If a founder is looking for early testers for their product, they can post that on the product testing page and users can come in and they can look at the different products that founders want to be tested and connect directly with the founders to organize whatever testing needs to happen.

So we’re making the connection and then everything else is done between the user and the founder.

Nice. No, that’s perfect. What a great resource for both sides, but I mean, especially for founders/developers. That’s kind of a hard thing to do as someone who… Part of our program does services, and man, just getting surveys back from people can be a challenge. So actually having a place where you can go and really get access to folks who are going to eventually be your users is just such a great resource.

Yeah. Yeah. I think people really want to have a say in the products, especially in this space because it’s definitely an issue when larger companies don’t include people with disabilities in the research and development of particular products. And so, we want to make sure that the founders building for them have as much access as possible and that the community has the access to really have a say in how things are developing.

Nice. Nice. Brittany, what kind of products are on Ability Lane?

Oh, we have all kinds of products. It’s still early days. We have about 70 products listed right now. I know a lot of founders are working on getting their products listed as well. We have everything from hardware companies that are helping people get out of bed and move around the house independently, to software and hardware companies that are helping people who are blind and have low vision understand nonverbal communication. We have companies in the education space for kids who are neurodivergent.

It really spans a wide array of different types of companies serving different segments of the disability, and neuro divergent, and caregiving population. What’s interesting too is a lot of these companies have AI in them and are built in the most innovative ways as AI is becoming more mainstream. I think a lot of times people look at accessible tech and disability tech as these super old, outdated, bulky pieces of software or pieces of hardware, and it’s really quite amazing to see the newest innovations being developed in spaces that haven’t been innovated on in decades.

No, it really is. That’s probably the most exciting part as someone who’s, I don’t know, scared of AI, maybe growing up on too many Terminator movies and things like that. But at the same time, when I see what it can do for individuals with disabilities and how it can, not just like you said, yeah, I sit there and think of old CCTVs and some of the bigger archaic kind of devices, but now it’s like I can put apps on my phone, or things that are so much more cost-effective and not out of reach because of the price. It’s amazing how much can be done with AI in really just being able to assist.

Yeah. Yeah, it really is.

Brittany, with the products on there, do you do any kind of vetting or is it just if it’s something that can assist someone with a disability, we want to get it in there to find out if it’s something that can help?

Yeah. Every product that is submitted by a founder is reviewed by me or someone else on the team just to make sure that the information in there is-

Real.

… okay, and make sure that it’s not a bot or something like that, and that it’s appropriate for the site. It has to be focused on disability or accessible technology. We have had founders try to post products that are not focused in that space, and so we have denied those postings. We really give a wide latitude to the types of companies that list. They could be nonprofits, they could be organizations or companies that are not looking for funding but are just helpful to people with disabilities, or those just looking for grants.

We’re really looking to create a wide array of products listed so people have the broadest options when they look for solutions or things to help them in their daily life. We also have a bunch of different areas on the site where if you see something that shouldn’t be there, you can flag it and notify us. So plenty of those safety precautions taken, but we’re very liberal in the types of products that we allow on the site.

No, that’s good. You brought up a good point about just… I talk to a lot of people and it’s just, where do I find these things? How do I find out about these things? A Google search is going to bring you back 10,000 things. Half of them aren’t even relevant or correct. So being able to have a one stop shop, not so much just to be able to be part of the process of getting everything together, but also just being able to find some of these things is a great resource for people.

Yep. Yep, definitely.

Yeah. In fact, I got yelled at just a few weeks ago with a lady who was older, in “Why did no one ever tell me that these things existed?” I was like, “Well, I don’t know. I just met you.” But it’s kind of sad that sometimes you cannot know these things exist, so I love that you’re giving that resource. I saw that you also have a discussions section on there. What kind of information would be in there?

Yeah. We are hoping that different discussions in innovation or product development will be fueled by that section so people can use it to introduce themselves if they want to and have a particular question, or if they want to just have a general feedback on a particular topic or issue. We’re trying to engage discussion in lots of different areas. I couldn’t even… The possibilities are endless in terms of what can go into the discussion section.

We’re just trying to get more people to talk about the product space, the innovation space, what goes into it, what people with disabilities and neurodivergence, what they’re looking for. So yeah, really meant to bring together that community aspect.

Nice. Nice. I know you brought up Ability Lane is pretty new, so thank you so much for coming on and talking about us early. Brittany, where do you see it going? Where do you want to see it go? I guess maybe that’s even kind of better… When we have you back on the show in a year, where do you want Ability Lane to be?

I have some plans of where I’d really like to see it go. I can’t say specifically just yet what those are, but I will say that the goal is to give the community and the users better access, even more access, to investment opportunities in this space and really accelerate the rate at which founders can raise money for the companies that they want, or raise grant money and things like that. More to come on that probably within the next year or two. But yeah, driving more capital into this space is a goal.

Perfect. Perfect. Well, and not just that, like you said, having the user involved in the whole process. It seems like whenever I talk to folks on here, the people I have back on five years later are the ones who are like, “Oh, we were building it. It was great. Then we tested it with users. They hated this. They love this. We changed this. We did this.” It’s like those are the ones that are… I mean, they might be very different in five years, but they’re still there. They’re still useful. Folks are still using them. Folks love them and really stick with them.

Well, Brittany, if our listeners want to find out more about Ability Lane, how do they do that?

Yeah, they can go to AbilityLane.com, and in order to endorse the company or post discussions, or see surveys and testing connection options, they can click the sign-up button and select explorer, which is the user profile, and sign up and start interacting with founders.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, I know I will definitely be sharing it with folks because they’re always, “Where do I find out about this?” And also, with the folks that are actually making this stuff, because that’s always the big thing, “I have this great idea, but I need people to test it. I need people to give me input. I don’t know how to get access to them.” So giving access to everybody, getting them all in the same room at the same table is a really, really great thing.

Brittany, real quick, did I miss any other information about Ability Lane that we didn’t talk about?

Well, actually, I guess I will say that there are ways on the site to sign up to get the latest updates. So instead of having necessarily to visit the site every single day to see what new products are out and about, you can sign up for Innovation Digest on the daily, weekly, or a monthly basis, as well as get updates on trending products, new surveys, and new testing opportunities right to your email inbox. And so, that’s definitely something worth checking out. Yeah, the founders are really just super-excited to get feedback and connect with more potential users, and get their products out there. So I really appreciate you having me on, Josh.

Yeah. We will put a link to Ability Lane down in the show notes so that folks can definitely go and check it out. Folks that do go and check it out, you’ll notice that you’ll see some pretty familiar things on there, just some folks that I know we’ve had on here. I know when I first opened it, it was good to see, I don’t know, some familiar faces, I guess would be kind of the way to see it, but great to see everybody getting connected. We can’t wait to have you back on in a year, or maybe a few, and find out where it really all goes.

Brittany, thank you so much for coming on today and for telling us all about Ability Lane, and again, for getting everybody together in order to accelerate and get some of these tools out to folks even quicker and probably even more useful.

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Do you have a question about assistive technology? Do you have a suggestion for someone we should interview on Assistive Technology Update? If so, call our listener line at 317-721-7124. Send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org, or shoot us a note on Twitter @INDATAProject. Our captions and transcripts for the show are sponsored by the Indiana Telephone Relay Access Corporation or INTRAC. You can find out more about INTRAC at relayindiana.com.

A special thanks to Nicole Prieto for scheduling our amazing guests and making a mess of my schedule. Today’s show was produced, edited, hosted, and fraught over by yours truly. The opinions expressed by our guest are their own and may or may not reflect those of the INDATA Project, Easterseals Crossroads, our supporting partners, or this host.

This was your Assistive Technology Update, and I’m Josh Anderson with the INDATA Project at Easterseals Crossroads in beautiful Indianapolis, Indiana. We look forward to seeing you next time. Bye-bye.