July brings together three meaningful milestones: America’s 250th birthday, Disability Pride Month, and the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Each celebrates freedom in its own way, but together they remind us that independence is only meaningful when everyone has the opportunity to experience it.
That spirit of opportunity is exactly what Amy Tarpein of Elijah’s Baby Bucket List discovered during a behind-the-scenes visit to Google’s Accessibility Discovery Center in New York City. Their visit is a hopeful reminder that when we design with disabled people, not just for them, we create a future where more people can experience the freedom to explore.
A Celebration of Possibility at Google’s Accessibility Discovery Center in NYC
Written by Amy Tarpein
On the first day of Disability Pride Month, our family stepped into a space that felt like the future: Google’s Accessibility Discovery Center (ADC) in New York City. Guided by our friend Sasha, an accessibility engineer at Google, and joined by Jake from TravelAbility, we spent the afternoon inside a living laboratory where inclusive design isn’t an afterthought. It’s the foundation.
Beginning Disability Pride Month with Intention
Before exploring the center, we gathered in Google’s free café, coffee in hand, snacks within reach, around a table, talking about the future of accessibility. That conversation set the tone for the entire visit: thoughtful, intentional, and rooted in community. Starting Disability Pride Month in a place built around innovation felt symbolic, almost like the universe nudging us forward.
A Space Built for Possibility
Walking into the ADC felt like stepping into tomorrow. Every corner held prototypes, tools, and interactive experiences designed to make the world more navigable for people with disabilities. The mini‑humans dove right in, testing features, exploring adaptive tech, and discovering how thoughtful design can reshape everyday life. It is inclusion at its best!
And this work isn’t limited to New York. Google has established Accessibility Discovery Centers in cities all over the world, like London and São Paulo, expanding inclusive innovation across continents. Standing inside the NYC center, it was powerful to know this commitment is global.
What’s at the Center
The ADC is organized into four main areas, each one designed to spark curiosity, collaboration, and possibility.
- Research Lab – equipped to record usability testing sessions, capturing real‑time feedback from people with disabilities so engineers can refine products with lived experience at the center.
- Assistive Experiences -featuring accessories that simulate certain impairments and hands‑on demonstrations of assistive tech used in daily life. The kids loved exploring how different tools support different needs.
- Workshop Space -a collaborative environment for ideation, reading, and building. It’s where engineers, designers, and community members come together to imagine what accessibility can look like next.
- Accessibility Discovery Center Arcade – a favorite for the mini‑humans. They tested game equipment designed for people who cannot use traditional controllers, opening up the opportunity for Elijah and Isaiah to play the dinosaur game together for the very first time.
We explored Braille keyboard options, learned about products designed inside the center, tried out adaptive games, and watched assistive technology come alive in ways that felt both practical and magical.
Innovation Meets Lived Experience
Having Sasha guide us added a depth that can’t be replicated. He didn’t just show us technology, he shared the why behind it. The lived experiences. The feedback loops. The engineering challenges. The victories that come from designing with disabled communities, not just for them.
Jake brought the TravelAbility perspective, and we brought our lived‑experience lens connecting tech innovation to real‑world travel accessibility. Together, we created an afternoon that felt like a masterclass in what inclusive design can look like when passion meets purpose.The mini‑humans even got to mark go to Google on business off the bucket list! We spent the afternoon testing adaptive tech, giving feedback, and helping share ideas to make the center even better and the boys got to play a game together for the very first time!
The Heart of Disability Pride Month
Watching the kids explore, play a game together for the first time, and test new features side‑by‑side, fully included, fully welcomed, was the kind of moment that stays with you. Disability joy, innovation, travel, and community aren’t separate ideas. They’re intertwined. And inside the ADC, that truth was unmistakable.
Gratitude for the Changemakers
We’re deeply grateful to Sasha for opening the doors to this incredible space, and to Jake for continuing to work toward accessibility in travel. Their work, along with the work happening in Google’s Accessibility Discovery Centers worldwide, is shaping a future where families like ours can move through the world with more ease, more dignity, and more joy.
It wasn’t just a tour.
It was a celebration of possibility.
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