1.3 billion people live with disability worldwide
Most products aren't designed with everyone in mind.
Access Insights embeds research directly inside the communities being left behind, creating alongside people with disabilities and older adults so that what gets built actually works for the people who need it most.
The Inclusion Gap
Accessibility begins with inclusion.
Products fail in the real world because they are validated in labs, not lives. People with disabilities are brought in at the end, as test subjects, not as cocreators. Older adults are ignored entirely. The result: technology that does not fit, is not adopted, and does not help.
We fix that by embedding research inside real communities, where the friction, the workarounds, and the genuine needs are visible from day one.
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1.3B
people globally live with a significant disability
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16%
of the world's population, the largest minority group
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$13T
in spending power held by people with disabilities and their networks
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70%
of assistive technologies are abandoned within the first year of use
Our Services
Every engagement puts people with disabilities and older adults at the center, not as passive participants, but as collaborators who shape what gets built and how.
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Lived Experience Advisory
Rapid insight sessions with real participants in authentic community settings. Fast, credible direction for product teams.
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Co Design & Usability Sprints
Multisession programs where participants co design, validating usability and surfacing friction before a product is built.
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Longitudinal In Setting Pilots
Extended pilots embedded inside residential and community environments, tracking adoption and real life integration over time.
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Annual Research Retainers
Priority Living Labs access bundled with multiple engagements across the year, built for teams with ongoing research programs.
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Academic Research Partnerships
Sponsored research and grant funded studies with full IRB support, real world participant access, and translational research infrastructure.
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Co Development Spaces
Opt in community environments where residents participate as collaborators from day one, shaping problem selection, design, and outcomes.
Our Team
Practitioners.
Advocates. Builders.
Our team brings together disability rights pioneers, Intel veterans in accessibility research and design, and community grounded technologists, united by a shared belief that the best innovation starts with lived experience.
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Darryl Adams
Founder
AI and accessibility strategist focused on inclusive innovation for real world impact. Former Director of Accessibility at Intel.
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Lex Frieden
Senior Advisor
Chief architect of the ADA and the founder of the independent living movement; five decades shaping U.S. and international disability policy.
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Richard Beckwith, PhD
Research Fellow
Long career doing research in support of design – Areas: disability, education, and aging; Technologies: UX, AI (esp. NLP), and sensing.
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Becky Chierichetti
UX Research & Design Lead
Intel Labs UX researcher exploring AI, mixed reality, and accessibility at the boundary of physical and digital worlds.
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Marco Beltman, PhD
Research Fellow
Former Intel Principal Engineer, with 25 years of experience in acoustics, vibrations, and immersive spatial audio. Volunteer raft guide at Adventures Without Limits to open the outdoors to people of all abilities.
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Pete Denman
Design/UX Strategist
With 20 years of experience designing digital and physical products and prototypes, Pete's work spans the full spectrum of UX — most notably the redesign of Stephen Hawking's communication system.
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Susan Faulkner
Research Director
Former Intel user experience researcher and leader with over 30 years of experience delivering high-impact results focused on accessibility.
The people behind the work
Seven people.
One rare convergence.
Genuine expertise in accessibility is not common. Expertise at this depth — research scientists, policy architects, principal engineers, and senior UX leaders who have each spent decades at the center of the field — is rarer still. To find seven of them working in concert is nearly unheard of.
Together, the Access Insights team holds more than 49 patents, has delivered over 1,200 lectures and keynote addresses on four continents, and has authored more than 167 peer-reviewed publications. Their work shaped the laws millions rely on, the tools billions use, and the standards that define what responsible, inclusive technology looks like.
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49+
patents held across acoustic engineering, augmented reality, and AI systems
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1,200+
lectures and keynote addresses delivered — from the White House to the United Nations
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167+
peer-reviewed publications spanning disability policy, HCI, acoustics, and ethnography
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50+ yrs
of combined work that directly shaped federal disability law and global accessibility standards
Partner with us
Build technology
that actually fits.
If your product touches the lives of people with disabilities or older adults, you owe it to them and your business to build with them, not just for them. Let's talk about how.
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Headquarters
Portland, Oregon