By: Rutvij Thakkar
“We hope this can be the beginning of a better future for disabled tech innovators and a brighter future for the disabled,” — -Zuby Onwuta.
In the 21st century, we’ve progressed dramatically as a society to make financial markets easily accessible to all. With the advent of zero-commission trading as the primary example, it’s very evident that, at the very least, public markets are ready to move on from the archaic limits imposed by Wall Street on even the very smallest of investors. There’s no doubt that, at some level, the financial markets of the past were disabling. Barriers to entry existed across every financial transaction, from opening a savings account to securing a loan to buy a house. It wasn’t until 1974 that women were able to get credit cards. Minority groups still struggle to secure loans for businesses or personal reasons and often resort to predatory payday lending and loan sharks.
It’s evident that the financial industry is far from perfect, but the one place where it would be willing to change the most is in the fast-growing and ever-adapting venture capital industry. Venture Capital has never shied away from diversity because it is inherently prone to damaging itself from being tone-deaf. When you’re crafting the future of the economy, you simply must factor in the demographics and consumers of tomorrow.
One place where VCs have dived into recently is in the idea of the user-maker, or user-innovator. This is because the most profitable technology products prioritize a form and function that’s individually suited for the diverse type of consumers in today’s economy. Since VCs plan to renew and revolutionize capital markets uniquely, they search for untapped and unaddressed markets. Quite arguably, the largest market that goes unaddressed today is the disabled or differently-abled market of consumers and producers.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 17.9% of people with disabilities were employed in 2020. Compare this to 66.3% without disabilities being employed. (https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/disabl.pdf)
The glaring issue here is that the disabled population is not an insignificant economic actor! Disabled people are one of the largest minority groups, with over one billion globally and likely many more that aren’t recorded according to the World Bank (https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability#1).
Approximately 80% of these disabled people are in developing countries, where VCs should gain the most penetration. But sadly, there’s still apprehensiveness about what kind of disability-improving tech should gain investment.
Zuby Onwuta, a disabled innovator, is trying to bridge the gap between venture capitalists and innovators like himself by showing that we’d likely have a much more efficient market and a more versatile economy if we had technology that simply reduced roadblocks. Disabilities aren’t inherently what’s stopping disabled people from advancing, but rather it’s the system that we’ve built around us that needs to adapt, just like it has in the past. Zuby points out one great thought process or ideation here: https://youtu.be/TNSAQBt4ffA?t=375
This mentions how Google had to adapt its maps system to show whether locations were handicap accessible or not. This simple system creates immense economic value in the following manner:
- Disabled consumers are more likely to go out and make purchases when they know they can access their desired location
- Businesses are more likely to be conscious knowing that their accessibility information is made publicly available
- More businesses become handicap accessible in order to compete and gain more customers
- More available producers for disabled consumers generate more economic value
This is just one simple closed system, and it doesn’t even factor in the idea that products catered to disabled innovators will enable them to work! Mr.Onwuta’s innovation, Think and Zoom! (https://thinkandzoom.com) has the potential to enable disabled people to consume and produce, which will revolutionize how our economy works. The reason his innovation works both ways is because of the patented philosophy of “user-innovators”.
Mr.Onwuta himself is nearly blind. His experience in technology combined with his current status as a user has allowed him to innovate this two-way productivity booster of a product.
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and Mr.Onwuta plans to bring forth valuable knowledge regarding how the new economy can accommodate disabled innovators who will then increase economic productivity for all of us. There’s a high chance somebody you know and care about is disabled, and there’s a high chance that there are innovations just waiting to be made to serve them better, so find out about the Future of Disability at this summit: https://www.futureofdisability.global
