Designing Accessibility That Works: Lessons from CTA Foundation Grantees at CES 2026

Redefining Accessibility for an Aging and Disabled World

At CES 2026, amid the usual spectacle of groundbreaking consumer technology, one conversation stood out for its quiet urgency: how to connect older adults and people with disabilities to life-enhancing technologies that actually work in the real world. Hosted by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Foundation, a panel of three grantee organizations—Easterseals Arkansas, Project SERVE, and Lorenzo’s House—offered a rare, ground-level view of what meaningful accessibility looks like.

Their work spans younger-onset dementia, injured veterans and emergency responders, and adults with disabilities seeking independent living. Yet across these diverse contexts, several common themes emerged: accessibility must be co-designed with the people it serves, partnerships are non-negotiable, technology should enable independence rather than complexity, and impact is measured in lived outcomes, not just metrics.

• Accessibility is not a feature set; it is an experience defined by the user.
• Partnerships and coalitions are often more decisive than any single innovation.
• Technology succeeds when it reduces isolation and increases real independence.
• Lived experience—of families, veterans, and people with disabilities—must shape solutions.

From Programs to People: What Real Success Looks Like

For many organizations, success is reported in numbers: people reached, devices deployed, universities engaged. The panelists did not dismiss these indicators, but their definitions of success were resolutely human.

At Lorenzo’s House, which supports families navigating younger-onset dementia, success means that “every single family…has access to relevant resources and people who understand this unique condition.” For program lead and daughter of a younger-onset dementia patient, Patty Lafleur, success is when a family finds another family who truly understands, and when one resource makes a day “just a little bit easier”—a lifeline in the midst of stigma and isolation.

For Project SERVE, which pairs university STEM students with injured veterans and emergency responders to co-design assistive technologies, Executive Director Tara Newell sees success in what she calls a “double impact.” Veterans receive custom technologies that improve daily life. At the same time, students discover a powerful sense of purpose that “keeps them in the lab for longer hours,” knowing a real person is waiting for a device that will change how they move, work, or participate in family life.

At Easterseals Arkansas, Vice President of Adult Services Brad Hagan describes success in one simple scene: an adult with a disability signing their first lease, holding a giant key that reads “my first place.” Their independent roommate housing program, supported by enabling technologies, gives families the chance to see their adult children thrive in the community while they are still alive to witness it.

• Measure success in lived change, not just program scale.
• Ask: does this solution reduce fear and uncertainty for families?
• Look for evidence of increased autonomy, not just increased access.
• Pay attention to how programs transform both service users and providers.

Designing With, Not For: Putting Lived Experience at the Center

A recurring principle across the conversation was deceptively simple: listen first. The organizations on stage do not start with preconceived definitions of accessibility and then retrofit people into them. Instead, they invite participants to define the problem and shape the solution from the outset.

Project SERVE does not “define accessibility”—its veterans and emergency responders do. Each participant brings a unique challenge, from mobility limitations to fine-motor constraints. Student engineers are expected to design with them, not for them, through regular check-ins, prototype testing, and shared decision-making. If the solution works for that individual, Newell emphasized, then it is accessible.

Lorenzo’s House follows a similar philosophy. Families are not treated as “beneficiaries” but as “builders and leaders.” Their NextGen global advocacy movement, led by sons, daughters, and allies, is co-creating the organization’s “Light” digital portal. These families lead beta testing, provide ongoing feedback, and ensure that the platform reflects what Lafleur calls their “lived wisdom,” not just their voices.

Easterseals Arkansas has operationalized this co-design approach through a structured technology process. After becoming a Technology First provider, they began using tools such as a technology matrix to understand individuals’ current technology use and willingness to engage with new tools. They then develop enabling technology plans that map specific technologies to daily life domains—wellness, independent living, cooking, health—and only implement what aligns with individual goals and preferences.

• Start every accessibility effort with listening, not assumptions.
• Make end users co-designers through structured, recurring involvement.
• Use tools (matrices, plans) to connect technology choices to real-life goals.
• Validate success against individual definitions of “what works,” not generic standards.

The Strategic Power of Partnerships

All three organizations underscored a hard truth: no one does this work alone. Funding is critical, but it is only one dimension of partnership. The CTA Foundation’s role, in each case, has been catalytic—providing resources, credibility, and connectivity.

For Easterseals Arkansas, the CTA Foundation grant enabled the technology backbone of their roommate housing program. Combined with partnerships with technology providers such as GrandCare, it allowed them to experiment, refine, and scale enabling technologies in ways that would have been impossible alone.

Project SERVE now works with 27 partner universities across the United States and has launched a national design competition where teams tackle a shared, high-impact challenge. This year’s focus—a warming sleeve for para-athletes competing in winter sports—illustrates how strategic partnerships can expand from local projects to national platforms, while still centering individuals with disabilities.

Lorenzo’s House, a small but global organization serving families in all 50 U.S. states and 35 countries, relies on partnerships to build capacity and awareness. With a documented 200% increase in younger-onset dementia in the United States, Lafleur emphasized that grants and alliances are essential to using technology to “match and connect families” who would otherwise remain in the shadows.

• Treat funders as strategic partners, not just sources of capital.
• Use events like CES to build networks across sectors and geographies.
• Seek technology partners who are willing to iterate with you, not just sell to you.
• Recognize that strong partnerships often change your original model—for the better.

Harnessing Emerging Technologies—Especially AI—Responsibly

Given the setting, it was inevitable that the conversation turned to AI. Yet the panelists’ perspectives were notably grounded. AI was not framed as a silver bullet, but as a tool to extend human capacity and deepen personalization when used thoughtfully.

For Lorenzo’s House, AI’s promise lies in helping match families across similar profiles—by diagnosis, life stage, geography, or caregiving burden—so that someone in crisis can quickly reach a peer who “understands” and can be called or texted in the moment they are needed most.

In the university labs that power Project SERVE, AI already helps student engineers explore more design iterations in the early prototyping stages. This accelerates experimentation, allowing students to spend more time refining solutions that better address the specific needs of the veterans and responders they serve.

Easterseals Arkansas sees AI strengthening safety and independence in everyday living. From systems that detect falls and risky behaviors to the longer-term promise of autonomous vehicles that allow individuals to move around their communities on their own schedules, AI is positioned as an enabler of autonomy rather than a replacement for human support.

• Apply AI to amplify personalization, not to standardize experiences.
• Use AI to extend capacity—matching, monitoring, iterating—where human time is scarce.
• Evaluate AI tools by a simple test: do they increase independence and confidence?
• Pair AI with human relationships, not instead of them.

Practical Takeaways for Leaders Building Inclusive Technologies

The panel closed with a set of insights that CES attendees—and leaders across industries—would do well to carry forward. They amount to a practical playbook for anyone serious about accessibility and inclusion.

• Start small, then scale. As Hagan noted, innovation cultures often “like to go fast,” but starting with one technology, one pilot, or one use case and building from there can prevent complexity from overwhelming staff and participants.
• Center invisible populations. Younger-onset dementia, for example, affects an estimated 7 million people worldwide; including family members, that’s roughly 28 million lives. Designing for “the average older adult” misses these families entirely.
• Make lived experience non-negotiable on every stage. Lafleur argued there should be no CES stage—or any major conference—without the voices of those directly affected by the conditions being discussed.
• Use storytelling to unlock purpose. Many innovators at CES, the panelists observed, are motivated by personal experiences of care, illness, or service. Surfacing these stories strengthens commitment and clarifies design priorities.
• Let partnerships reshape your vision. Easterseals’ roommate housing program looks different today than it did on paper—because collaboration revealed better pathways.
• Refuse to keep impact “in Vegas.” As Newell put it, what happens at CES should not stay at CES. The ideas shared on niche stages need larger platforms if accessibility is to move from the margins to the mainstream.

Ultimately, the panel underscored a shift that forward-looking leaders must embrace: accessibility is not a compliance exercise or a niche market strategy. It is a design philosophy, a partnership model, and a moral commitment. When organizations listen deeply, co-create with the people they serve, and harness technology to expand—not replace—human connection, accessibility becomes more than an obligation. It becomes a source of innovation, resilience, and shared dignity.