At the Adaptive Design Association (ADA) on West 36th Street in Manhattan, there are fascinating things to look at, study, and be curious about. You might be most attracted, as I was, to the cards with 3-D objects that blind and nonverbal children can touch and feel to communicate their needs and desires. You want to know more. Who designed these? How, exactly, do they function? Who buys and uses them?
The ADA packs its well-designed website and Instagram feed with answers and information, so I will use this space instead to introduce you to four extraordinary people who work there. ADA is more than a job for them and others on their team. It’s a commitment to helping people with disabilities, especially children, live their most productive lives.
The ADA’s community partnerships coordinator and the person at the front desk, Tamara M. Morgan, will happily tell you that she’s 39 years old and has an undergraduate degree in psychology from Hunter College and a master’s in art therapy from NYU. In addition to working at the ADA for more than nine years, she’s a Disability Awareness speaker for NYC Public Schools and earned an Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership.
(I learned the last two credentials on LinkedIn; for an outspoken disabilities activist, she’s too modest).
She will also explain that she was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic disorder that results in soft or brittle bones that fracture easily.
Tamara’s left arm had been in a sling for a month; a bicyclist had hit her. “I’m short, 3 feet, 2 inches tall, and when I’m getting around in my chair, I’m on eye level with toddlers,” she explains. “I’d have great conversations with kids, but people were always walking into me — especially now that so many are buried in their phones — and I needed a way to be more visible.” With a push of a button, she now uses another device made for her, a two-foot pole attached to her wheelchair that lights up via LED strips. “Day or night, it’s a lifesaver,” she says. And she does get around, taking the subway from her apartment to the ADA every day.
The creator of Morgan’s desk and light pole, Eric Gottshall, has worked at the ADA as a designer and fabricator since graduating from Rutgers University in 2021 with a degree in research-based design. His personal Instagram feed offers close-ups and detailed descriptions of his many innovative designs, most recently a table that plays like a game and an extraordinary multifunctional recliner with armrests and footrests that, like all the furniture made at the ADA, is custom-fitted to a client, in this case, a 12-year-old boy.
Left: Eric Gottshall, photo courtesy of the ADA
Jennifer Hercman, the organization’s executive director, is a passionate spokesperson for learning about and changing popular assumptions about disability. After receiving her MA from the Rhode Island School of Design, specializing in Teaching + Learning in Art + Design, she began looking for volunteer opportunities to apply her expertise. When she found the Adaptive Design Association, with its focus on using simple tools and affordable materials to transform lives, she knew that it was where she wanted to make a difference.
This is the place where design, access, community, altruism, and education coalesce.
Jennifer Hercman, executive director
Jennifer Hercman, image courtesy of the ADA
The ADA’s communication cards are the ultimate in simple design brilliance. They help nonverbal, blind, and low-vision children with everything from choosing their desired breakfast food to understanding the sequence of the day’s activities. You can order from hundreds of pre-made cards or have custom cards designed for a specific person or need. Although there are costs involved and the ADA is a nonprofit, families don’t bear any of the costs.
Senior adaptive designer Adam El-Sawaf works in an impressive shop equipped with the tools and materials needed to fabricate the designs. With a BFA in industrial and product design from Montclair State University, El-Sawaf says that the key is to listen deeply to parents’ and teachers’ explanations of every client’s needs to develop the most effective ways to meet them. A remarkable standing device that rotates a prone child into a standing position is a case in point.
Although the standing device is made from plywood (ADA’s material of choice is most often three-ply corrugated cardboard), it is strong, flexible, durable, and inexpensive. (El-Sawaf demonstrates below.)
El-Sawaf and fabrication assistant Charles Cohen, whose specialty is finishing the communication cards so they last as long as possible, led me on a shop tour and demonstrated how the 3-D printer is used to manufacture parts, such as making circles for the “circle time” communication card and letterforms to imbed in the cards.
Please check out the ADA’s impressive gallery of adaptations and learn how the organization functions via local and international partnerships.
Even better, see for yourself. Next time you’re in New York City, arrange a visit!
Images courtesy of the author except where noted.