CARExDESIGN = Co-created + Hand-Crafted + Free

Yes—“Design is for EVERYONE!” (as the NYCxDESIGN website states).

Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at the Adaptive Design Association (ADA), a nonprofit based in New York City’s Garment District that provides custom designs for people with different abilities through a collaborative process of creating assistive aids. Every item is fabricated in-house and offered free of charge. ADA is a space where “new narratives of care take shape”—literally.

Operating as a nonprofit since 2001, ADA has created over 10,000 custom adaptations—ranging from seating and standing devices, utensils, and mobility aids to tactile communication tools for people who are blind or have low vision, and even a battery-powered Wild Thing kids’ car designed to hold an oxygen tank. Every item is built in collaboration with clients, caregivers, educators, and therapists to meet needs often unmet by mass-produced solutions—or as immediate, creative responses when devices are unavailable, delayed, or denied by insurance.

For children with developmental delays or disabilities, timely intervention dramatically shapes outcomes in mobility, communication, cognition, and social-emotional growth. ADA serves all ages and disabilities, with 70% of requests coming from children under 10 years old. The most commonly reported disabilities include Cerebral Palsy, Autism, Genetic Disorders, and Visual Impairments.

Through their core programs—Adapt for Access, Made to Learn, and the Tactile Communication Program—ADA integrates universal design principles into education and training programs that equip others to co-create assistive devices. Using accessible materials like cardboard and open-source 3D printing, ADA’s design practice empowers individuals and communities anywhere to reimagine what care and accessibility can look like in response to local healthcare systems.

When thinking about adaptive designs, the questions often asked are: Why, how, and for whom did this design come to be? And what values are embedded in the systems from which it emerged?

When we design alongside lived experience, assistive tools naturally evolve beyond the one-size-fits-most approach. Designing becomes a holistic practice—one that incorporates and expresses care not only in function, but in process, intention, and form.

Visit our satellite event @COMMONTHINGS
(76 East 7th Street) in the East Village to see the debut of our MAGNADAPT x STUDIOPHORIA collaboration.

“We’re reframing assistive tools as lifestyle objects through an aesthetic language of form and function that transforms our values and the narratives we share about care, creativity, and belonging,” says Elaine Young, ADA Board Member and Founder of STUDIOPHORIA.

@adaptivedesigninc @studiophoria