The people
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Working at eSSENTIAL Accessibility
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On the TechTO stage
Demo of the Month: eSSENTIAL Accessibility
Watch on YouTube ↗Founder Fridays: Building eSSENTIAL Accessibility
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About
The company came out of healthcare, not software. Dermer and Papathanasakis owned small long-term care businesses and kept meeting people who had lost the ability to use a computer after an accident or illness. The technology to help them existed — Dermer's example on stage was the elaborate rig built for Stephen Hawking — but almost nobody could get it. eSSENTIAL Accessibility's answer was to have brands sponsor the assistive software for their own customers, then to audit and remediate the digital properties themselves. Early customers were Canadian household names: Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Shoppers Drug Mart, Toronto Hydro. Dermer credits Toronto's density of approachable head offices for making that possible. The company raised US$16 million in growth funding and merged with Virginia-based Level Access in 2022; both founders stayed on with the combined business.
Backers
Raised US$16M in growth funding; merged with Level Access in 2022. Investor names not sourced.
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Quick answers
What did eSSENTIAL Accessibility do?
It helped organizations make their websites, mobile apps and digital products usable by people with disabilities — assistive technology for end users plus testing, evaluation and remediation against WCAG and accessibility law.
Does eSSENTIAL Accessibility still exist?
Not under that name. It merged with Level Access in 2022 and the combined company operates as Level Access. Co-founder Simon Dermer is a board observer there.
Who were its first customers?
Canadian Tire, Home Hardware, Shoppers Drug Mart and Toronto Hydro, according to Dermer on the TechTO Founder Fridays podcast. He argued that Toronto's concentration of large-but-reachable head offices is why the company got started there and not elsewhere.