The Future of Accessible Design: ADA 30 Years and Beyond

*This event is occurring as a live webinar. Registrants will be emailed a link to access the program.*

To commemorate the 30^th anniversary of the signing into law of the Americans With Disabilities Act, we look to the future. Join us for presentations and panel discussion with thought leaders, theorists, and designers to address the question: What is the future of accessible design?

The discussion will be a wide-ranging exploration of new models of practice, expanded constituencies, and broader definitions of what inclusive design can be. It will address issues of neurodiversity, responsive technology, and occupying/claiming space.

Panelists:
Jenny Lay-Flurrie, Chief Accessibility Officer, Microsoft
Elise Roy, MS, JD, UX Accessibilty and Inclusion Lead, Google
Joel Sanders, FAIA, Principal, Joel Sanders Architect and MIXdesign
David Serlin, Associate Professor of Communication and Science Studies, University of California San Diego

Moderator:
Anita Cooney, Dean, School of Design, Pratt Institute

Jenny Lay-Flurrie is chief accessibility officer at Microsoft, leading the company’s efforts to drive great products, services and websites that empower people and organizations to achieve more. She founded the Disability Employee Resource Group at Microsoft and created the Disability Answer Desk, which provides specialist customer support to people with disabilities, hosts the annual Microsoft Ability Summit. Jenny was Instrumental in projects such as Autism Hiring Program, Soundscape and the Microsoft Ability Hackathon, which has supported over 500 hackathon teams building technology for people with disabilities.

Elise Roy, MS, JD, leads Google’s accessibility and inclusive design efforts. Elise has over 15 years of experience working with the disability community through a diverse career path. Her professional accomplishments include she working as a lawyer, on the Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) at the United Nations, the first human rights treaty to be passed in the 21st century, as a marketing creative for the 2008 election campaign, and establishing an inclusive design consulting business with fortune 500 clients such as Marriott and Google. As an internationally recognized thought leader, Elise has given talks all over the world including Amazon, FedEx, Target, the United Nations, NASA, AIGA and the Smithsonian’s Cooper Hewitt Design Museum. Her TEDx talk, “When We Design for Disability, We All Benefit,” has over 1.3 million views. Elise earned her BA in Psychology from Brown University, graduating with honors. She received her JD from Northeastern School of Law and a Masters of Social Design from Maryland Institute College of Art. 

Joel Sanders, FAIA, is the founder of MIXdesign, an inclusive design think tank and consultancy that is a branch of his New York based, LGBTBE-certified architecture studio JSA (Joel Sanders Architect). MIXdesign is dedicated to making everyday building types like restrooms, art museums, and university campuses accessible and welcoming to people of different ages, genders, abilities, cultural identities, and religions. MIXdesign initiatives include Stalled!, an AIA award-winning project that responds to national controversies surrounding transgender access to pubic restrooms. In addition to being Principal of JSA/MIXdesign, Sanders is Professor at Yale School of Architecture, where he directs the M.Arch II program.

David Serlin is an associate professor of communication and science studies at UC San Diego, and affiliated faculty at the Center for the Study of Social Difference at Columbia University. His research interests include historical and cultural approaches to disability, technology, and the built environment. His books include Replaceable You: Engineering the Body in Postwar America (University of Chicago Press, 2004) and Window Shopping with Helen Keller: Architecture and Disability in Modern Culture (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming). He was awarded the 2020-2021 Rome Prize in Architecture from the American Academy in Rome.

Anita Cooney is the Dean of the School of Design at Pratt Institute, a position she has held since the school was formed in July 2014. From 2005-14, she was chair of Pratt’s Interior Design Department, where she led the creation of one of the nation’s top interior design programs. Cooney has also served as assistant chair of the Institute’s Undergraduate Department of the School of Architecture. As a designer with more than twenty years of experience in professional practice, Cooney is principal of acoo design llc.