Building

I wasn't looking for anything when the email arrived.

Greg Moomjy sent it from Delaware, where he was keynoting an opera conference on accessibility. He was in the middle of his own work, important work, and he still stopped to think about me. One forward. No explanation needed.

That's the kind of people you want around you.

Greg and co-founder Marianna Mott Newirth are the driving force behind Opera Praktikos, New York City's first disability-affirmative opera company where disability-artistry and interabled performance are reshaping what opera can become. They were in Delaware making that case.

I'm proud of them for that. All of it.

The email he forwarded was from the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation (CPARF). And it stopped me.

CPARF is building the most comprehensive map of assistive technology that has ever existed: what works, where it falls short, and what needs to change. The only way to get it right is firsthand experience. Yours. Mine. Ours.

Sometimes the most powerful thing a research foundation can do isn't fund a lab. It's ask the right question to the right people and actually listen to and do something with the answers.

That's what CPARF is doing. They didn't commission a clinical trial. They built a survey. Not a checkbox form. A conversational tool designed to capture something that doesn't live in a product database or a research paper: what assistive technology actually feels like to use when you're the one depending on it.

CPARF is asking.

I took the survey. It runs about 10 to 20 minutes. What struck me was how personal it felt. There are separate tracks for people with disabilities and for caregivers and professionals. It's not a form that processes you. It's a conversation that tries to understand you. At the end, CPARF asks for your email, not to add you to a list, but to follow up on your specific experience and needs. That detail matters. It means they're not just collecting data. They're building a relationship with the people who have the answers.

The resource is free. Anyone will be able to use it to find better tools, make the case for better coverage, and direct resources where they're actually needed.

That's what building looks like. And it's worth paying attention to.

Take the survey. You can find it at disabilitytechindex.org/survey. Whether you live with a disability, care for someone who does, or work professionally in this space, your experience is exactly what CPARF needs to build something real.

Then share this with one person. Someone you know who has a perspective worth capturing. A family member. A therapist. A friend who's been navigating this alone. CPARF can't build a true picture without voices from outside the room they're already in.

There is now a tool built specifically to capture your experience, not a researcher's assumption of it. That is self-agency. That is you telling the world what you need instead of waiting for the world to guess. Take that opportunity.

And if you want to see disability-forward arts programming done right, visit operapraktikos.org. Artists, patrons, and the simply curious are all welcome. Greg and Marianna are doing some serious work.