Ability Central is accepting applications for its 2023 Communication Access Grants to improve communications and information access for people who are Deaf and disabled.
Donor Name: Ability Central
State: California
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline (mm/dd/yyyy): 07/15/2022
Grant Size: $10,000 and $100,000
Details:
Their 2023 funding cycle for Communication Access projects emphasizes innovative projects, training projects, and accessibility improvement for small nonprofits.
- Innovation Projects
- Ability Central defines innovation as the development of a new concept into a valuable solution that expands access for people with disabilities when applied and scaled. They encourage innovation with the potential to impact people far beyond the initial study or pilot participants. They are currently not funding research projects or studies that are not yet ready to be implemented.
- They prioritize projects that employ human-centered design by involving the perspectives of people with disabilities in all steps of the process. Planning and testing must include people with disabilities, and people with disabilities must be compensated.
- As part of the grant requirements, grantees need to publicly share the results of their project to benefit the greater community by producing:
- Article/paper
- Presentations
- Open-sourcing (making specifications of a device, app, or program available for public use or modification)
- Training Communication Access Professionals
- This priority focuses on the strategic training of professionals in the communications and information access fields. Professionals in these fields have the potential to impact many individuals over the course of their careers.
- They strongly encourage train-the-trainer models and the creation of publicly available online training materials. They prioritize projects that include people with disabilities in their design and implementation. They also prioritize collaboration and exchange between organizational partners.
- Examples of training projects they are interested in funding:
- Projects to train more interpreters who are Deaf
- Projects to train more DeafBlind Co-Navigators (formerly Support Service Providers, or SSPs)
- Projects to train more mental health service providers (Licensed Clinical Social Workers [LCSWs], counselors, etc.) to work with clients with disabilities
- Projects to train more organizational staff to make materials and meetings accessible and inclusive for professionals and clients with disabilities
Funding Information
Grant awards range between $10,000 and $100,000.
Eligibility Criteria
Ability Central only funds nonprofit organizations operating in the state of California.
For more information, visit Ability Central.
