News & Events

Ability Central Announces Educational Access and Improvement Mini-Grants

$2,500 mini-grants available to create inclusive educational access for students with disabilities

Oakland, California – April 12, 2022 – To address issues of access to inclusive education exacerbated by COVID-19, Ability Central is offering a handful of small response grants to improve socio-emotional learning (SEL), communication access, and sensory development programs for youth (K-12) with disabilities.

Ability Central recognizes the pandemic continues to create a severe crisis for students with disabilities. Without access to their usual mode of education, children with disabilities are sliding backward, losing academic, social, and emotional skills.

As part of its philanthropic mission, Ability Central is …

Grants offer help installing CRMs for nonprofits serving disabled communities

Oakland, California – February 23, 2022 – Ability Central is introducing a new grantmaking program from its Cloud Consulting initiative, offering grants to cover the complete cost of a Salesforce CRM implementation, plus support and maintenance from staff for a full year. The combined value of the installation plus service is more than $10,000, provided at no cost to the grantee.

Recipients of the Reach for the Cloud grant will be provided with a dedicated project manager and expert technical resources to install and configure the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack …

Illustration of a diverse group of people with disabilities.

More than a million dollars awarded for communications access

Oakland, California – January 5, 2022 – Ability Central has awarded grants totaling nearly $1.2 million to 17 nonprofit organizations in California working to expand communications access for Deaf and disabled communities. The recipient organizations offer a wide range of support and services for these communities, including development of new assistive technologies, speech therapy for children in low-income areas, disabled leadership development initiatives, and more.

“People with communication disabilities have an urgent unmet need for support communicating and accessing information,” says Matt Cherry, director of philanthropy at Ability Central. “As the …

Rules of Engagement: How to Make Your Online Meetings Accessible for People with Disabilities

By Matt Cherry, Director of Philanthropy at Ability Central

First published by TechSoup at: https://blog.techsoup.org/posts/how-to-make-your-online-meetings-accessible-for-people-with-disabilities-1

One in four American adults has a disability that impacts major life activities. Often these disabilities include communication challenges, like hearing and vision loss, sensory processing disorders, and difficulty speaking clearly. After years of slow steps to include people with communications challenges in workplaces, schools, and services, the COVID pandemic resulted in a giant leap backward.

As a nonprofit where communications accessibility is the core of our mission, Ability Central regularly hosts meetings with participants who are deaf, blind, have sensory processing issues, or difficulties …

Ability Central Announces Educational Access and Improvement Mini-Grants

Ability Central Announces New Tech Grants for California Nonprofits

Grants offer help installing CRMs for nonprofits serving disabled communities

Ability Central Awards Grants to 17 Organizations Working with Deaf and Disabled Communities

More than a million dollars awarded for communications access

Rules of Engagement: How to Make Your Online Meetings Accessible for People with Disabilities