Startups and Emerging Technologies as Drivers of Disability Human Rights?

As the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) approaches its 20th anniversary and the global community plans for the next phase of implementation in a changing world, HPOD is co-organizing a side event as part of the 19th annual Conference of States Parties to the CRPD (COSP19) together with Austria's Permanent Mission to the United Nations and the Zero Project. This COSP19 side event will provide an overview of the rapidly evolving contours of the “disabilitytech” sector, assess examples of how start-ups and other private sector actors are contributing to advancing disability rights, and highlight opportunities for the public sector to harness this potential to strengthen CRPD implementation, especially with regard to strengthening care and support systems to ensure the empowerment, autonomy and independence of all persons with disabilities.

Rapid technological advances, steadily aging demographics, and growing consumer demand are fueling the disabilitytech economy. Globally, people with disabilities and their families are estimated to collectively control as much as $18 trillion in disposable income. The global assistive technology market was valued at more than $22 billion in 2023, with assistive technology yielding a 9x return for each dollar invested. These macro-economic conditions point to the potential role that start-ups, entrepreneurs, and private enterprises in promoting disability human rights. Already, disabilitytech start-ups are leveraging smart devices, artificial intelligence, and other technological advances to deliver captions for Deaf and hard-of-hearing people, inspect sidewalks for accessibility, and navigate benefits eligibility,  aided by a growing number of funds, investors, accelerators, and entrepreneurs within the disabilitytech ecosystem. 

While international norms have traditionally placed the onus of global human rights governance on the public sector for fulfilling individuals’ human rights, the CRPD may be uniquely positioned among international human rights treaties to inform the activities of key disabilitytech ecosystem actors. The first international human rights treaty to address 21st-century realities, the CRPD articulates a critical, albeit incomplete, vision for the role that emerging technologies can and should play in overcoming contemporary human rights challenges. At the same time, the CRPD expressly requires States Parties not just to regulate but to enlist the private sector in fulfilling their treaty obligations. These obligations crystallize preexisting duties under international human rights law to ensure that everyone can “enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications.” These commitments are also essential means to fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Yet, much work remains to be done to translate international obligations into actionable law and policy tools to empower governments to harness the potential of rapidly evolving technologies to address the human rights challenges faced by the global population of 1.3 billion persons with disabilities. Without careful planning to spur greater private investment in inclusive technologies and to generate win-win partnerships to promote private-sector disability human rights innovations, governments risk missing critical opportunities to ensure that persons with disabilities are not excluded from foreseeable quantum leaps in human well-being during the digital age. 

Program

• Opening remarks
  • Ambassador Gregor W. Kößler, Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations
  • Luis Gallegos, Senior Advisor, HPOD
• Panel discussion moderated by Michael Ashley Stein, Executive Director, HPOD
  • Gina Kline, Founder & Managing Partner, Enable Ventures & Founder, SmartJob, LLC
  • Brittany Palmer, Managing Partner, Adaptation Ventures
  • Varun Chandak, Founder & Executive Director, Home - Access to Success [TBC]
  • Diego Mariscal, CEO & Chief Disabled Officer, 2Gether-International [TBC]
• Concluding remarks by Michael Fembek, Director & CEO, Zero Project, Essl Foundation