Mission Statement:

The mission of the Adaptive Design Association is to engage families, schools, and communities in the process of designing and building child-specific adaptive equipment. The goal of this collaborative effort is to make certain that children with disabilities get the devices and modifications they need to achieve their full developmental, social, and academic potential.

Our Vision:

ADA envisions a day when adaptive design services are widely recognized as an indispensable resource for children and all people with disabilities; and customized equipment is being produced quickly, affordably, and locally.

Goals:

• Teachers, therapists, and parents move quickly from seeing a need, to sketching or describing a design, conferring with other team members, to building the item themselves (or with another fabricator), to using the new piece of equipment with the child.
• Universities integrate adaptive design and equipment fabrication into professional preparation curricula for therapists and teachers.
• Schools and agencies make certain that workshops are readily available, well-supplied, and well-staffed.
• The larger community supports customized equipment fabrication by volunteering time and talent, donating materials, and making financial contributions.

To realize this vision, ADA:

• Generates awareness that most children with disabilities need more custom-made adaptive equipment than they can currently get.
• Demonstrates that adaptive design services are crucial and moreover, cost-effective.
• Trains professionals, parents, and the broader community to design and build customized equipment with readily available materials.
• Facilitates the problem-solving process from project identification, assessment, brainstorming, and information gathering to equipment design, construction, and implementation.
• Promotes creativity and innovative design so children get not only essential equipment, but also unique equipment that prompts new skills and facilitates full participation.
• Encourages school-wide participation so all staff and students know that their ideas and skills are welcome and vital.
• Works with professors to integrate adaptive design and construction into university curricula.
• Supports the establishment of adaptive design workshops in schools, agencies, and communities, and facilitates information-sharing through conferences, newsletters, and the web.