After years of providing virtual accelerator programming to accessibility technology startups and borrowing space for community events, Access to Success (ATS) has officially opened its first physical hub in Toronto.
Through the newly launched ATS Innovation Hub on Toronto’s eastern waterfront, the nonprofit aims to support the growth of companies developing solutions in areas like mobility, hearing, vision, cognition, aging, neurodiversity, and rehabilitation.
“Having a space like this is going to be very important.”
Juan Olarte
ATS founder and executive director Varun Chandak says the hub will give accessibility-focused entrepreneurs a dedicated co-working and collaboration space where they can build amongst their peers and connect with potential partners, investors, and government stakeholders.
In an interview with BetaKit following the Wednesday ribbon-cutting ceremony, Chandak said that a physical space is something that ATS program participants have been requesting for a while.
“One of the highest intensity things they wanted was that sense of community,” Chandak said.
Since its founding in 2016, ATS has focused on helping startups developing life-changing innovations for people with disabilities. One of the core ways ATS does this is through its free, zero-equity virtual accelerator program, which it launched in 2019.
Since then, ATS has served 78 companies globally across six cohorts. Chandak claimed this group has gone on to provide solutions that have collectively benefitted more than 2.5 million people with disabilities.
“Demand for the program is far too high for us to keep up with,” Chandak said, claiming that in 2025, ATS received more than 200 applications for 15 available spots.
Last year, ATS also provided $50,000 CAD in total grants to accessibility startups, and Chandak expects it to do the same in 2026.
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ATS has funded this and the rest of its work entirely through corporate partnerships, such as the one it has with US tech company HP, which first began supporting ATS in 2024.
“We want to work with organizations that can really scale and do things differently, and if you think about the intersection of technology, aging populations, [and] the need for accessibility growing exponentially, this is just an absolute perfect fit,” HP Canada head of sustainability impact Frances Edmonds told BetaKit in an interview.
ATS alumni whom BetaKit spoke with expressed excitement about the organization’s new hub.
“Having a space like this is going to be very important,” Digita11y Accessible founder and CEO Juan Olarte told BetaKit in an interview.
Olarte, whose Toronto business helps other companies ensure accessibility online, expects the ATS Innovation Hub to give startups a clear roadmap and be a venue for educating peers, investors, and the broader public about what accessible tech truly means.
Virginie Cobigo, a University of Ottawa psychology professor and the director of Open Collaboration for Cognitive Accessibility, echoed Olarte’s enthusiasm.
Open is an Ottawa-based research initiative that partners with people with cognitive disabilities to co-design and test accessible products. Cobigo said the network and connections that Open has already gained through ATS has helped the organization grow.
Cobigo is looking forward to connecting with more of that network, including her peers, in person going forward. “Because we were spread out, and there was no space [before the ATS Innovation Hub], that was harder to do,” she told BetaKit in an interview.
Feature image courtesy HP. Photo by KITE Studio.