The livestream below will begin at the time of the event.

More than thirty-one years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) promised independent living, equal opportunity, full participation, and economic self-sufficiency for disabled Americans. Yet while we have made important progress toward these goals in the decades since, with disabled people in the United States still facing double the poverty rate of nondisabled Americans today, much work clearly remains to realize the vision of the ADA. 

Join us on Thursday, April 21, from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM ET as The Century Foundation and the Ford Foundation launch the Disability Economic Justice Collaborative—a first-of-its-kind initiative that brings together leading disability organizations with an array of influential researchers and policy experts to drive a disability economic justice agenda. 

Join to learn more from several distinguished panels, including a discussion with members of the Disability Economic Justice Collaborative and remarks from former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, and more. Achieving economic justice for people with disabilities in the United States will require a collective commitment to applying disability as a lens across the entire economic policy agenda—as well as an intentional acknowledgment that economic justice requires disability justice.

Live captions and ASL interpretation will be available.

Please register to obtain the Zoom link.

Panel of Distinguished Speakers: 

  • Julián Castro, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Klinsky Professor of Practice for Leadership and Progress, Harvard Law School
  • Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07)
  • Moderators: Rebecca Cokley, program officer for U.S. Disability Rights, Ford Foundation; and Rebecca Vallas, senior fellow, The Century Foundation

Featured Remarks:

  • Sarita Gupta, vice president for U.S. programs, Ford Foundation 
  • Mark Zuckerman, president, The Century Foundation

Closing Panel:

  • Featuring members of the Disability Economic Justice Collaborative
  • Moderators: Kim Knackstedt, senior fellow, The Century Foundation; and Vilissa Thompson, fellow, The Century Foundation

Presented by The Century Foundation and the Ford Foundation.