Durham Accessibility Conference

Abilities Centre, in partnership with the Region of Durham, invites the business community, Durham Region employers and those interested in exploring the power of inclusion in the workplace, to attend the Durham Accessibility Conference.

This event is hybrid. Register to attend in person or virtually. Real time captioning and American Sign Language interpretation will be available.

Keynote speaker, Ingrid Muschta, Director of Special Projects and Innovation, Ontario Disability Employment Network.

Panellists include:

· Liza Arnason, Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors, ASE Community Foundation

· Samantha Estoesta, Community Builder, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Advocate

Ingrid Muschta (Keynote Speaker)

Ingrid is a Licensed Professional Engineer in the Province of Ontario with more than 20 years of combined working experience in corporate, entrepreneurial and not-for-profit settings.

Since 2017, Ingrid has worked with the Ontario Disability Employment Network (ODEN), first as a Diversity and Inclusion Specialist and now as Director of Special Projects and Innovation. As a Diversity and Inclusion Specialist, Ingrid was instrumental in moving 250 people who have a disability into employment and delivered the ODEN Disability Awareness and Confidence Training to more than 500 business members. Ingrid’s current role contributes to ODEN’s mission by working alongside a team of professionals who identify and promote innovative and promising practices in both the business and employment service provider sector.

Liza Arnason (Panellist)

Liza Arnason is the Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors, ASE Community Foundation for Black Canadians; an Educator, Disability Justice Warrior and Passionate Speaker.

Liza's commitment to the principles of "nothing without us" and "for us, by us”, has always been the cornerstone of her work as an educator, administrator and community advocate. Her depth of knowledge and expertise is informed by her lived experiences, research and policy initiatives, and work experience of more than 30 years. Liza draws on critical pedagogy including Black feminism, disability justice and critical race theories to inform community-based research and policy change initiatives. She unapologetically brings the lived experiences of those intersectional experiences of race, gender and disability to the “table”, identifying nuances, gaps, and disparities within systems, structures and research. Through collective leadership across Canada, Liza continues to design and advocate for new models and systems that will affect real change.

Samantha Estoesta (Panellist)

With more than a decade of experience in equity, diversity and inclusion advocacy, Samantha blends communications, community engagement, research and design thinking facilitation skills to create experiences that elicit a sense of belonging—online and off-line—and empower teams to be more equitable in their ideation and decision making, creating lasting culture change.