Disability’s impact on innovation

Disability often fuels innovation — not in spite of the challenges it brings, but because of them. Across history, disabled people have developed tools, technologies, and ideas that have transformed lives far beyond their own communities.

This Disability Pride Month Elisavet Koureas investigates four examples of disability-driven innovation.

1. The Typewriter and Assistive Text Technology

In the early 1800s, the typewriter was developed in part to support a blind woman in Italy. That early effort paved the way for modern word processors, screen readers, and text-to-speech tools — essential for many today, from disabled students to global tech users.

2. Curb Cuts: An Everyday Invention with Universal Impact

In the 1970s, wheelchair users in the U.S. began physically creating ramps on pavements to demand better accessibility. These simple curb cuts are now everywhere — and benefit not just disabled people, but parents with prams, cyclists, and delivery workers.

3. Speech-Generating Devices

Popularised by physicist Stephen Hawking, voice-output communication aids have transformed how non-verbal people — including those with cerebral palsy, ALS, or autism — can communicate. These devices continue to evolve, shaped by users themselves.

4. Velcro

Even everyday inventions owe their existence to accessibility thinking. Velcro, for example, became popular thanks to its ease of use for people with dexterity issues — and has since become ubiquitous in clothing, shoes, and bags.

Disability is often framed as something to accommodate, but it can also drive creativity, problem-solving, and progress. This Disability Visibility Month, it’s worth remembering: many of the tools we all use every day exist because someone challenged a barrier.

The contents of this article are for the purposes of general awareness only. They do not purport to constitute legal or professional advice. The law may have changed since this article was published. Readers should not act on the basis of the information included and should take appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.