$3M
Federal cooperative agreement
News Release · RISEI Lab
Northwestern's RISEI Lab Awarded $3 Million to Lead Project ReachABLE
The U.S. Administration for Community Living names Northwestern University to lead a national, three-year effort to expand ABLE account enrollment and financial literacy for people with disabilities.
Evanston, Illinois · September 2026
3 Years
Project term
ACL / HHS
Awarding agency
National
Project of National Significance
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Community Living (ACL) has awarded Northwestern University a $3 million, three-year Project of National Significance cooperative agreement to lead Project ReachABLE, a national effort to expand awareness and use of ABLE accounts and to strengthen financial literacy and independence for people with disabilities.
Directed by Dr. Michelle Yin, Northwestern’s RISEI Lab will lead the initiative in partnership with TransCen, Inc. In ACL’s words, Northwestern “will lead a national effort to help increase enrollment in ABLE accounts and improve financial literacy among people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and other disabilities.”
ABLE accounts, established under the Achieving a Better Life Experience Act, let eligible people with disabilities save and invest without losing access to essential public benefits. Enrollment still sits far below the population that qualifies. The binding constraints are awareness, understanding, and trust, rather than eligibility, and Project ReachABLE is built to address them directly.
Working with TransCen, people with disabilities and self-advocates, families, and state and community partners, RISEI Lab will bring clear and practical information about ABLE accounts to people at the moments when financial decisions matter most, from employment and benefits to education and other major life transitions. The project organizes its work around three areas of activity, key life moments, community outreach, and national outreach.
A National ABLE Advisory Group will guide the effort. More than half of its members are people with disabilities and self-advocates, which keeps lived experience at the center of the initiative’s design and priorities.
“For years, our research has examined how public policy can either create barriers to financial independence for people with disabilities or help remove them. ABLE accounts are a real opportunity to change that equation, but a policy only creates impact when people know about it, understand it, trust it, and can actually use it. Project ReachABLE lets us move from research to implementation at a national scale.”
Dr. Michelle Yin, Director of RISEI Lab and Principal Investigator, Northwestern University
The award extends a research program at RISEI Lab that studies how public policy shapes economic opportunity for people with disabilities. It also reflects the lab’s approach of pairing rigorous evidence with practical tools and programs that policymakers and practitioners can act on.
$3MThree-year cooperative agreement from ACL
>50%Advisory group members who are people with disabilities and self-advocates
2 leadsNorthwestern RISEI Lab with TransCen, Inc.
3 areasKey life moments, community outreach, national outreach
Project partners
Project ReachABLE is led by Northwestern University’s RISEI Lab in partnership with TransCen, Inc., a national nonprofit focused on employment and community inclusion for people with disabilities. The project convenes state ABLE programs, disability organizations, self-advocates, and families as partners in outreach and design, and works alongside ACL throughout the three-year term.
About the organizations
RISEI Lab, Northwestern University
The Research and Innovation for Social and Economic Inclusion Lab, directed by Dr. Michelle Yin at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, advances rigorous, evidence-based research across technology and the future of work, workforce and disability, education and assessment, and global inclusion. The lab translates findings into tools and programs that policymakers and practitioners can use.
Administration for Community Living
ACL is the agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services charged with maximizing the independence, well-being, and health of older adults, people with disabilities, and their families and caregivers. Projects of National Significance support work with national scope and impact.
Cooperative agreement under Notice of Funding Opportunity HHS-2026-ACL-AOD-DFLA-0025. Media contact: RISEI Lab, Northwestern University, risei@northwestern.edu.