New York City has awarded $7.5 million in contracts to launch a four-year initiative to assist people with disabilities find employment in a program that will include disabled New Yorkers in its planning and execution.
This “co-designed” approach was announced the first day of April at the start of Autism Acceptance Month. The announcement was made at Positive Exposure Gallery in downtown Manhattan where officials from city agencies and nonprofits gathered.
The contracts will support training and employment programs as well as design to expand inclusive career opportunities. People with disabilities will be part of the process by contributing their lived experience to design and research of the workforce programs. They will work with employers and workforce providers, officials announced at the event.
The goal is to boost meaningful employment for people with disabilities citywide.
“We are committed to building a city where access to good jobs is not limited by disability, and where our economy is strengthened by the talent and experience of people with disabilities,” said Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su. “We are awarding $7.5 million so that the community can be part of designing new training and employment programs for New Yorkers with disabilities. Nothing about us, without us, and today, we embrace that, not just as a slogan, but in action.”
The focus of the program will be on Service Design, Workforce Providers and Employer Collaboration. Organizations receiving awards will develop the programs over the next nine months and launch services in early 2027. The grant awardees include:
- Service Design: The firm, 3×3, will facilitate the co-design process for the two other tracks.
- Workforce Providers: AHRC NYC, Equus Workforce Solutions and Goodwill NY/NJ will facilitate the co-design of programs by people with disabilities for jobseekers.
- Employer Collaboration: Urban Institute will assist New Yorkers with disabilities to co-design technical assistance services to make workplaces more accessible and help hiring disabled employees.
A 2024 report from NYC comptroller Mark Levine found that that New Yorkers with disabilities have a “significantly lower employment rate” than their non-disabled counterparts.
“People with disabilities have long faced structural barriers to employment including employer discrimination, inadequate accommodations, and inequitable access to social assistance and vocational rehabilitation, among other factors,” the report read.
NYC Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, Nisha Agarwal. Photo credit: Joie Tyrrell
An employment initiative that includes people with disabilities co-designing these programs can help meet those challenges as well as increase access for employers to a pipeline of qualified talent. Programs have often been designed for people with disabilities without their input, officials said.
Doug Lipari, executive director of the NYC Office of Talent and Workforce Development, noted that the co-design model will put workers first by the inclusion of people with disabilities in implementation and design and that will lead to good jobs.
“These new programs will advance this Administration’s vision of building a more inclusive and fair economy where all New Yorkers can live with dignity and thrive,” he said.
George Davis, a speaker at the event, shared his personal story as a neurodivergent New Yorker whose condition was misunderstood for most of his life but, later, he was able to find meaningful employment and how much that meant to him. He now works as an Individualized Education Services Program Outreach Coordinator for the New York City Public Schools.
“It wasn’t until I began working in education, supporting my students with learning challenges that my understanding shifted,” he said. “I learned about neurodivergence—not as a deficit, but as a difference.”
The effort announced Wednesday represents a partnership between the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity), the NYC Office of Talent and Workforce Development (NYC Talent), the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD), and the Department of Small Business Services (SBS).
“Together, we’re co-creating and delivering programs in a way that recognizes New Yorkers with disabilities as the experts on their own needs,” said Carson Hicks, executive director of the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity.
Speakers at the announcement also included the new NYC Commissioner of the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, Nisha Agarwal, who said that “approaches like co-design help ensure that services are more responsive to needs and experience.”
The event was held against the backdrop of a new show at Positive Exposure called Visual Voices: Art of the Spectrum. The exhibit celebrates autistic abilities through the works of four extraordinary artists. The show, where each artist transforms the canvas into a dialogue of color and texture that shapes how they make sense of the world, runs through April 29.