Disability policy is often characterized as comprising three different components: citizenship rights, labor market integration and social protection. In this study, we present a fourth component - disability-related innovation. Specifically we analyze two critical interrelated questions: what governments do to guide innovation in this area; and do patterns of greater government disability policy involvement in social-democratic welfare states apply in the case of innovation? Utilizing a qualitative comparison of Germany, Israel, Sweden and the United States, we find that while policy across all countries is at first glance decisively similar, the important differences that exist cannot be satisfactorily explained within the classical welfare state typology framework. Countries that are leaders in terms of social support for disabled people - Germany and Sweden - are not necessarily leaders in disability-related innovation. This is particularly noticeable in the case of programs for support of Assistive Technology development. This study characterizes and compares innovation policy as it applies to disabled people in Germany, Israel, Sweden and the United States. Innovation policy's two main components are regulation that requires Universal Design, which requires that new technologies are designed to be usable by disabled people as well as others, and financial and institutional support for the development of Assistive Technologies. Cross-country ideological and political differences fail to explain differences in disability-related innovation because innovation policymaking tends to be apolitical. Only Israel and the United States created government programs dedicated to the support of Assistive Technology development. To better serve disabled people, policymakers should formalize and fully support the development of Assistive Technology, as well as expand Universal Design regulation and enforcement.