Empowering People with Disabilities

Comcast added Easter Seals as a national partner in 2013, launching the Comcast Assistive Technology Grant Fund to support Easter Seals affiliates that are working to bring technology resources to people with disabilities and special needs and their families.

Easter Seals affiliates in Boston, Chicago, Hartford, Houston, Indianapolis, Miami, and Philadelphia were the first recipients of the grant fund support under the new partnership.

In Houston, the Comcast Foundation grant supported the BridgingApps Project, which assists people with disabilities in finding apps that can help improve their quality of life. With Comcast’s support, Easter Seals of Greater Houston was able to significantly expand in-person services and website content for the BridgingApps Project, reaching more than 20,000 users each month.

The partnership also includes airtime for public service announcements to raise awareness of Easter Seals’ services, particularly early disability identification and intervention programs such as Make the First Five Count of The Point Foundation. 

"[After] working with an Easter Seals specialist, Matilda Gonzalez, who could only control the movement in her eyes, was using a communication device powered by her eye gaze. She sped through the basics — ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ and then on to more complex communication. She communicated, for the first time in her life, with her mother and siblings. This is the life-changing impact we have every day at Easter Seals Houston, in part due to the support of our community and partners like Comcast who understand that we all deserve an opportunity to succeed."

ELISE HOUGH
CEO, EASTER SEALS GREATER HOUSTON