DAY 7.
Resilience,
Recovery &
Adaptation
panel
Inclusive Design and Employment for People of All Abilities
Learn about how New York’s makers and manufacturers in New York City are advancing inclusion of people with disabilities through adaptive design and inclusive employment practices. We will explore adaptive design with the Adaptive Design Association, a nonprofit organization that creates adaptations of expensive and non-custom commercial products for people with disabilities; Adapt Ability, a new nonprofit that specializes in affordable solutions for adaptive bicycling; and will take a behind-the-scenes look at Undercare’s adaptive clothing for people with mobility challenges with CEO and Founder Susanne Leary Shoemaker. In celebration of Disability Employment Awareness Month, we will also be joined by Karen Waltuck, JobPath’s Director of the Consortium of Customized Employment, to learn how a network of 13 agencies are working together with manufacturers and other businesses through the customized employment strategy that is key to engaging skilled people with developmental disabilities as long-term employees. This program will be hosted by Turnstile Tours’ President Cindy VandenBosch who is an accessibility professional in the museum and tourism fields.
panel
Manufacturing Pivots & Industry Resilience
This spring, the city’s manufacturing community rapidly pivoted away from pre-COVID day-to-day operations to produce PPE and help fellow New Yorkers endure an unprecedented crisis. This panel will highlight the manufacturers who rapidly mobilized to be a part of the solution, whether through new business models, production of masks, face shields, and hospital gowns, or food donations. We will amplify stories that demonstrate the critical role of manufacturing in New York City’s local economy.
