DC daily roundup: NoMa’s new innovation hub; assistive tech recs; influencing for NATO

Platforms to help level the playing field

The future of work for people with disabilities — historically the most overlooked and underemployed segment of the population — is more promising than ever before.

“As a disabled founder with cerebral palsy, I have found assistive technology to be a critical component for pursuing and achieving my entrepreneurial goals,” writes Diego Mariscal of 2Gether-International, an accelerator run by and for people with disabilities.

CBoard is a great example, he says. The platform, which helps people with speech and language impairments communicate, recently won a 2GI pitch competition. It was developed after its founder was diagnosed with ALS and became frustrated by the cost and inaccessibility of pre-existing tools and services.

➡️ Check out Mariscal’s 5 recommendations for assistive tech tools

What to know about working at Vanguard

Built in 1975, Vanguard is investor-owned, meaning the fund shareholders own the funds, which in turn own the company. Its technical crew works on modernized cloud-based applications and platforms, bringing Vanguard to even more investors around the world.

Tech teams design, architect, and build infrastructure and applications tailored to solve problems and present client experiences using the latest cloud technologies. And data teams power an ecosystem where decisions are driven by insights delivered by artificial intelligence and machine learning.

➡️ Learn more about this Technical.ly client here.

News Incubator: What else to know

• A new tech hub is set to launch in DC’s NoMa neighborhood in the second quarter of 2025. It’s a project out of the Texas-based firm Capital Factory, which provides mentorship and other resources to startups. The DC Council also approved $2 million in funding to support the project. [Technical.ly Slack/Join here]

• This week the Washington Post debuted the AI chatbot we broke news about in April. Right now, it’s focused on questions related to climate. [Axios/Technical.ly]

• Call for nominations! It’s the time of year when we pull together our RealList Engineers, a feature that recognizes influential technologists and developers whose impact extends beyond their technical prowess. Submit your suggestions for DMV honorees by the end of the week. [Technical.ly / Google Forms]

• A DC consultant who’s attracted over 200k Instagram followers by posting daily routines and other content is collaborating with the State Department to spread the word about the NATO Summit held in DC this week. [Washingtonian]

• Investors of two now-permanently closed restaurants in Union Market say they’ve received little explanation or documentation about the shutterings. [Washington City Paper]

🗓️ On the Calendar