In order to make a difference and to achieve our goals, we often need the support of others who are more experienced or more educated than us. This is loosely the premise of Remarkable, an “accelerator” program for start-ups and businesses that are building new technology for people with disability.
The first thing you see when you visit the Remarkable website is their very clear purpose:
“We accelerate disability tech start ups. We’re here for founders and ideators to fuel their vision, develop disability tech, gain seed funding and build their business.”
For the businesses involved, it’s a fantastic opportunity to really make a difference. But for the wider disability community, it’s super exciting as we get to see some of the most creative, life-changing and innovative ideas coming to our space. They can even inspire us to develop our very own ideas.
The history of the Remarkable accelerator is stooped in technology for disability, with its origins that date back to the same period as the development of a solar powered wheelchair. The first Australian hackathon event, called “Enabled by Design-athon” (organised by Cerebral Palsy Alliance in 2014 in partnership with the University of Technology Sydney and FutureGov), became its launch pad. With Telstra Foundation in attendance during the event, a partnership was born that started out as Life Labs. In April 2016, Life Labs eventually became known as Remarkable.
This year’s Remarkable cohort include a list of tech founders and start-ups who are literally changing the way we live – here’s a brief snapshot of just a few of our favourites:
Spix App
The team behind Spix App sets out to “build a tool for gamers living with impaired speech to support social connection and rich interaction in-game!”
Take a look at the below video to understand how awesome this piece of technology is …
Cure Bionics
Cure Bionics is a Tunisian-based start-up and they develop 3D-printed and customisable bionics prosthetic arms that enhance the human body with multi-grip functionality. This is suited for below-elbow amputee adults and children aged 8 and above. Their aim is to make their products more accessible and cool to wear. The 3D printing idea is designed to reduce costs, which it does so drastically, but we’ll let the founder, Mohamed Dhaouafi, talk you through it …
Recovawear & Wearable and Co
Penny Weber is the founder behind both of these businesses, using her lived experience to create an inclusive and adaptive everyday clothing range, designed for all abilities while enabling everyone to feel their best selves. Her story is pretty incredible…
Check out the other disability-tech accelators and their stories via https://remarkable.org.au
Although the Demo Day (the day start-ups are encouraged to present their work at the end of the Remarkable Accelerator Program) is already over this year, continue to keep a keen eye on their website and their various channels to see what else is coming up.
There’s plenty of Remarkable things happening in our country right now and finding new ones like this program certainly inspires us in our work.
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