Interact Np

Interact is a nonprofit 501(c)3 that is currently focused on facilitating the opening of an all-accessible café and cooking school that will serve and employ individuals with disabilities. The cafe, to be located in Ability360 in Phoenix, Arizona, will serve premium coffee, nutritious, easy-consumed food and give people with disabilities the opportunity to enjoy the social aspects of eating. Too often, people with disabilities find themselves isolated and eating poorly due to inaccessible restaurants or difficult to prepare healthy options. For many people with disabilities, it’s easier to just stay home and choose more convenient, and usually less healthy, options. At the cafe, however, all that will be different. A barista in a wheelchair will be able to easily hand a latte to customers. The lighting and décor will be understated in consideration of those with invisible disabilities that make visual stimulus, such as bright lights or busy wall paper, difficult to process. For those who want to get some work done or play a game on their tablet or PC, electrical outlets will be reachable even from a wheelchair or gait chair (which will fit under the tables). But most importantly, there will be plenty of nutritious, healthy snack and food options available. The café will be designed to convert into a cooking school so people with disabilities and caregivers can learn to prepare nutritious meals at home. Although the cafe/cooking school will be the nucleus of interact's broader goal to bring edible ease to people with disabilities, it is only the beginning. Plans are already in place to expand to both an online and in-person nutrition curriculum, in-home education on how to navigate a standard kitchen with a disability and more. We invite you become a part of his exciting journey to go beyond ADA building regulations and experience complete accessibility.