Living with SCI, Arbaugh has used Neuralink’s implant to achieve greater independence, controlling devices and playing video games through thought alone. While groundbreaking technology has transformed parts of his life, Arbaugh is now addressing a pressing need: the high cost of care and accessible housing for those with severe disabilities.
The Reality of Living with a Spinal Cord Injury
For high-level spinal cord injury patients like Arbaugh, the financial burden is immense. Around-the-clock care can cost over $550,000 annually—a figure that places enormous strain on families and individuals. In addition to these costs, many disabled individuals struggle to find or afford homes equipped with the necessary features for accessibility and independence. Arbaugh’s campaign aims to build a house tailored to his needs, ensuring he can live safely and independently.
Raising Awareness for Thousands
Arbaugh’s initiative goes beyond personal goals; it highlights the struggles faced by hundreds of thousands of individuals with disabilities in the United States. By using his platform as Neuralink’s first human BCI patient, Arbaugh sheds light on the financial and emotional challenges of living with severe mobility impairments. His story serves as a call to action for greater societal investment in accessible infrastructure and support systems.
Just the Beginning
“This is just the start,” Arbaugh emphasizes. While his efforts focus on building his own accessible future, the larger mission is to raise awareness about the broader needs of the disabled community. As technologies like Neuralink advance, Arbaugh’s work highlights the critical intersection of innovation and accessibility, showcasing the potential for technology to empower individuals while advocating for systemic change.
His $2 million fundraiser symbolizes hope and progress, but it also reminds us that the journey toward widespread accessibility and affordable care is far from over. By supporting initiatives like Arbaugh’s, we can all contribute to a more inclusive future for people with disabilities
Here's the full story:
"I think an update on the fundraising and building a house for my family is long overdue. So here we go.
During my 72 hours stream we raised a little over $700,000. That’s beyond anything I could have possibly hoped for. When I say that I’m grateful and my family is grateful, it doesn’t even begin to describe the feelings we have and how much we feel blessed to be in the position we’re in. It quite literally brought me and my family to tears. Thank you so much.
Since then, we have begun drawing up floor plans for a house. My dad works at a plumbing and electrical company, builds houses for a living, and has been in construction his entire life. So, having him as a resource has been invaluable with knowing what we want and what we need in the house. After countless hours of painstakingly crafting floor plans, we finally have an idea of what it will look like and ultimately what it would cost. Unfortunately, because the housing market is so bad and inflation is so high, not to mention the cost incurred by making the house accessible, the house we’re looking to build would cost northward of $2 million, where it might have cost a fraction of that a few years ago. We initially wanted to start building in February, but now that we have a general idea of the price, it’s incredibly daunting. Although the prudent thing may be to consider putting it off a year or two in order to both find the funds we need and hoping that the price will go down, It is our wish that we won’t have to wait that long.
A couple days ago, I learned of another caveat to this whole undertaking. If you’ve been following my page at all, you noticed that yesterday I mentioned how much crypto taxes suck. That’s because when I sold the incredibly generous donation from the $Noland community, I put myself in the highest tax bracket for crypto. I’ll have to pay a 37% tax on that exchange. Even more, when I convert the Solana to usable income for building a house, I’ll be taxed again. I’m not 100% sure of how to go about this (so any of you out there who have any experience in this field or knowledge/wisdom regarding my situation, it would be greatly appreciated). From what I understand, I will be looking at walking away with—- figuratively speaking, of course😅— anywhere from $250,000 to $400,000 out of the roughly $700,000 that was raised. I still will hold my promise to God and donate $70,000 to a charity or multiple charities.
If you’ll allow me to be honest for a moment, it’s absolutely heartbreaking to know that so much of the money that was donated will be taken in taxes. And not because it hurts my family financially, because we are so incredibly blessed to be given what we have, and I will never take that for granted. Thank you so much to everyone who donated and I don’t even have the words to convey my deepest heartfelt love and admiration for those of you who have decided to help me and my family. What’s upsetting to me is that your donations are being taken away. It’s not fair to you. I’m sorry that I wasn’t more knowledgeable about these things. I feel as if I’ve wasted your money. It honestly makes me so upset at myself. Please forgive me for my ignorance and my hastiness with your hard earned money. I am eternally sorry and I pray for your forgiveness.
So where do we go from here?
I’m not sure if we’re going to build in February as we had originally planned. My mom has her heart set on it and we believe that whatever God’s will is, it is best for us. His plans, not ours. He will provide or direct us down a different path. It’s funny, building this house in 2025 is something God put on both my and my mother’s hearts. So perhaps this is just an exercise in faith.
Not a cent of this money will go towards anything else besides the charities, as I’ve said before, and building the house. I’ll take none of it for my personal use and I promise to be better with your donations.
There are many different avenues which my family may yet explore. There are disability grants. There’s Habitat for Humanity. There’s working with local businesses to see if they might donate material. And there’s always the option of taking out a loan, though how much I could get is unclear.
I would like to fundraise again and see if I can find some way to fulfill the dream of mine and build my parents a house without them having to pay a cent out of pocket.
Finally, it’s unclear to me what y’all think of me at this point. I’m not going to lie and say it’s not on my mind what y’all may view as greed or ungratefulness. There are rumors going around that I made millions of dollars, which is completely false. I’m just trying to do my best here and I hope you can bear with me.
Thank you for all of your support and the outpouring of love and generosity has been more than I deserve. May God bless all of you."
If you'd like to learn more about how you can contribute to offsetting the cost for those of us living with disabilities, connect with me and let's chat!
https://www.joesharronchallenge.com
Share Your Support