About The Ability Toolbox: Our Mission, Team, & Medical Review Process

Our Mission

The Ability Toolbox is a lifestyle and self-help community for people with disabilities, chronic illnesses, and mental health conditions. We support one another by sharing “life hacks” for surviving and thriving despite the barriers society and a broken healthcare system throw in our way. We support artisans and small business owners with health conditions by giving them a platform to promote their work. 

We are a social enterprise, which means we are a business, not a charity, but our company serves the greater purpose of promoting accessibility, inclusion, and justice for all. 

We hope you’ll join us in building a life beyond limits.

Our Values

At The Ability Toolbox, your voice matters, and we put the needs of our community first. These are the values that drive our company:

• Pay disabled people. Professional writers and creators with health conditions deserve to be paid for their work. It’s often more challenging for people in our community to hold traditional jobs because of discrimination and unpredictable health, so our first priority will always be paying our writers. But please understand that we are a small disabled-owned business and sometimes have to take a hiatus from accepting paid articles. You can help us by donating your writing if you’re able to do so, or volunteering to help run our support groups. 
• Amplify diverse voices. We welcome writers who are part of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. We are here to publish articles and spotlight people whose voices are often ignored and devalued. 
• Support small businesses. Many people with disabilities and health conditions, including our founder, choose self-employment because we can tailor our work to our abilities and schedule. That’s why we created a directory of disabled-owned small businesses, and also feature small businesses owned by people with health conditions and other marginalized people in many of our articles. 
• Be transparent about how we make money. Many companies try to hide or obscure how they make money and what they do with your data. We will never do so. Currently, we earn money from affiliate links, sponsored posts, and display advertising. 

Our Founder

The Ability Toolbox is proud to be a disabled-owned small business. Our founder is also part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Our Peer Experts

Peer experts are people with lived experience who use their knowledge and compassion to help others in similar circumstances. Our writers are peer experts who have disabilities, chronic illnesses, and/or mental health conditions, or have a child or family member with a condition. 

Peer experts ensure that our articles are easy to understand, inclusive, and free of ableism, sexism, racism, weight bias, and other forms of prejudice that are prevalent on many health websites.

We believe that disabled, chronically ill, and mentally ill people are the experts on our own lives. We are the best people to speak about our experiences, and our collective wisdom is valuable. 

Our Medical Review Process

We publish articles that center peer experts with a commitment to promoting factual health information. Our content is not a substitute for medical advice, but here’s what we do to make sure what we share is helpful and trustworthy. 

Authoritative Sources

All articles on The Ability Toolbox are fact-checked for accuracy. We cite reliable, authoritative sources such as government health organizations, peer-reviewed journals, and universities, and we link to them right in the articles. Unlike other websites, you don’t have to look for a references section in tiny text at the bottom of the article to find our sources. 

Review by Medical Professionals

We work with medical reviewers to ensure our health-related content is scientifically accurate and reflects the latest evidence-based recommendations. Our review team includes board-certified physicians, licensed mental health care providers, scientists, and educators.

Featured Medical Reviewers and Contributing Writers

Meet some of our professionals and peer experts. 

Partners

We’ve partnered with these businesses to help make The Ability Toolbox a great community.

Images provided by Deposit Photos