The story
It started with a Deaf sister-in-law.
In plain words
This company started because of a Deaf family member. Watching her be left out — of films, of news, of ordinary information — made the problem impossible to ignore. The answer had to be made with Deaf people, not for them.
The founding connection was a Deaf sister-in-law. Living close to the daily gap — a film with captions she could not follow, a notice written in a language that was never hers — made one thing clear: captions were being called access, and they were not.
The response was to build infrastructure where the people who need access make it: Deaf signers, captioners and audio describers, paid and credited, with any platform or city able to deliver their work through one service.
We are hearing founders. That is why the community is not a beneficiary here but the supply chain, the moat and — we intend — the leadership.
About 70 million Deaf people worldwide use a sign language as their first or preferred language.
Receipt: World Federation of the Deaf
a11y's pre-operating research and development was supported by a national science research grant and a city government grant.
Receipt: company fact