About Us

Able Americans is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank project dedicated to advancing innovative, free-market solutions that empower Americans with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities. We advocate for policies that remove barriers, expand individual freedom and choice, and deliver better outcomes for people with disabilities and their caregivers. Our mission is rooted in the belief that opportunity and human dignity are part of the American promise for all people, regardless of ability.

Breaking Barriers, Building Solutions

America is a nation blessed with an abundance of wealth and opportunity.

We enjoy this prosperity thanks to the foundational rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness enshrined in our founding texts. These timeless principles affirm the inherent dignity and worth of every human being—including people with disabilities. People with disabilities are inheritors of the American promise of freedom and equality under the law.

For too long, disability policy in America has failed to live up to these ideals. Antiquated laws and outdated assumptions continue to limit the potential of people with disabilities, forcing many into lives of survival rather than opportunity. And the problem is much bigger than most realize.

One in four adults in the United States live with a disability, and the total number of Americans with disabilities and their caregivers now exceeds 100 million people.

America has a vast safety net, spread across more than 80 programs and 14 agencies—but it often focuses on how many people are enrolled, not whether lives are truly being improved.

This is Why Able Americans Exists

Able Americans is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that provides policy solutions for Americans living with intellectual, developmental and physical disabilities. AbAm advocates for innovative solutions that harness the free market, emphasize individual freedom and choice, and remove barriers to flourishing for people with disabilities and caregivers.

Government programs often misallocate resources, drive or create shortages, penalize work and innovation, or create barriers that make it more difficult for those with disabilities to thrive.

It is time for reform that empowers Americans with disabilities to pursue independence, work, family formation, and the pursuit of happiness.

The Story

In 2022, the National Center for Public Policy Research launched Able Americans to support Americans living with intellectual, developmental, and physical disabilities — including wounded warriors and those with mental health or substance abuse issues, and their families. While there are many organizations advocating for more government spending and bureaucracy, there are none advocating for solutions that harness the free market, emphasize individual freedom and choice, and remove barriers to progress.

Able Americans believe the principles of free markets, individual liberty, and personal responsibility provide the greatest hope for meeting the challenges facing America in the 21st century — no matter an individual’s level of ability. Able Americans works to advance innovations to existing policies concerning individuals with disabilities. We also advocate for new policies/programs that focus on free market solutions — with a goal to lower costs overall and create better individual outcomes.

It is time for reform that empowers Americans with disabilities to pursue independence, work, family formation, and the pursuit of happiness.