Cornell Tech hosted the inaugural Disability and Access in Tech and AI Summit on Oct. 9-10 on its Roosevelt Island campus, bringing together researchers, technologists, and community advocates to explore how disability and accessibility intersect with innovation.
The summit welcomed speakers, students, faculty, alumni, and community members from Cornell’s Ithaca campus, New York City, and around the United States.
The event, designed to be a space for dialogue, lived experience, and cross-sector collaboration in addition to showcasing research, was co-organized by Omari W. Keeles, senior director for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and Thijs Roumen, assistant professor at Cornell Tech. The idea to create the event emerged from conversations across campus and a growing recognition that accessibility deserves a central place in the tech landscape.
“We felt there was a bigger opportunity here,” said Roumen, who is also affiliated with the Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. “The most important outcome is to find one another — those who built technology, those who make policy, and those who use the technology. There is so much we can all learn from one another.”
The event was powered by YAI, a nonprofit organization that supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. YAI’s involvement helped ground the summit in real-world impact, connecting Cornell Tech’s academic community with practitioners and advocates working directly with people with disabilities. YAI also co-hosted interactive workshops, including one where attendees could try out assistive technologies and engage with startup founders developing tools for communication and mobility.
