Access Playground Vol.1

Access Playground: Vol. 1

A Space to Move, Play, and Connect for Disability Inclusion + Accessibility Leaders

Because joy and liberation are essential to transforming systems. Come fill your cup!

📅 Date: Thursday, January 29, 2025

⏰ Time: 4:00–5:30pm PT | 7:00–8:30pm ET

🌐 Format: Virtual

🎟️ Donation-Based Registration

Why Access Playground

If you’re an Accessibility or Disability Inclusion Leader, you know this work is important, but it can also be isolating, emotionally taxing, and heavy.

Access Playground by Infinite Flow Dance, is not another webinar. It’s a space to move, play, breathe, and reconnect to what keeps us doing this work: joy, liberation, and community.

Systems don’t shift through policies alone. They shift through connection, creativity, embodiment, shared humanity, and through joy and liberation.

What to Expect:

• Play + Movement for Connection - led by Marisa Hamamoto and Infinite Flow Dance Company Artists. Joyful and accessible somatic experience. (No dance experience required.)
• One Story, One Dance - A live storytelling and performance moment from Infinite Flow Dance that invites you to feel, not just think, about inclusion.
• Real Talk with Real Leaders - Hear the truth from a leader advancing disability inclusion in meaningful, human-centered ways.
• Reflection - New year intention setting + journaling.
• Connection - Meet fellow leaders and changemakers. You are not alone.
• More Play - expect a reflective and creative bonus activity.

Hosts:

Marisa Hamamoto, Founding Artistic + Executive Director, Infinite Flow Dance | Keynote Speaker | Filmmaker

Lori Samuels, Senior Director of Accessibility, NBCUniversal | Accessibility Advocate

Who This Is For

• Accessibility Leaders
• Disability Inclusion Champions
• DEI & HR Professionals
• Inclusive Educators
• Accessibility & Universal Design Teams
• Disability Justice Advocates
• Emerging Changemakers

If you are helping to shape a more inclusive future, you belong here.

Donation-Based Sliding Scale Registration

Choose your level of support. All donations directly support Infinite Flow Dance’s School Assembly Program, empowering the next generation of inclusive leaders: $35-90

💌 Want to contribute more or sponsor a future event? Email Marisa@InfiniteFlowDance.org

Come fill your cup!

Contact For Questions:

Marisa@InfiniteFlowDance.org

949-267-8751 (Please text first before calling)

About Your Hosts:

Marisa Hamamoto (She/Her):Marisa Hamamoto is the first professional dancer named People Magazine “Women Changing the World.” A leading authority on disability inclusion and building a culture of belonging, Marisa was recently named LinkedIn Top Voice, and has been featured on Good Morning America, NBC Today, Forbes, Fast Company, amongst other media outlets. As a sought-after international speaker and performing artist, Marisa has shared the stage with Tim Cook at Apple HQ’s Steve Jobs Theater, and her clients and partners include Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Red Bull, Deloitte, adidas, PayPal, Farmers Insurance, Kaiser Permanente, among other forward-thinking brands. Marisa is a spinal stroke survivor, a late-diagnosed Autistic, and a proud fourth-generation Japanese American. She is the founder of Infinite Flow Dance, an award-winning dance company and nonprofit that employs disabled and nondisabled dancers with diverse, intersectional identities, with a mission to advance disability inclusion, one dance at a time. Marisa is bilingual and bicultural. She completed her BA & MA from Keio University, Tokyo.

Lori Samuels (She/Her): Lori Samuels is the Senior Director of Accessibility at NBCUniversal. She leads NBCU’s strategic enterprise accessibility program – instituting best practices in inclusive design, providing training for digital product organizations, and driving operational and cultural maturity in accessibility. She is one of the Global Advisors for NBCUniversal’s MyAbilities Employee Resource Group to support disability inclusion in the workplace and authentic disability representation in media. Lori has her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science, and has had career roles in Software Engineering, Engineering Leadership, Technical Program Management and Accessibility Consulting. Her passion for making technology work for people of all abilities started in 1993 when she was Director of Engineering at Broderbund Software. She went on to start Intuit's enterprise accessibility program and deliver the first-ever accessible version of QuickBooks. Prior to joining NBCUniversal, Lori led accessibility programs and initiatives at Microsoft. Lori grew up in Boston and moved to San Francisco just in time for the big earthquake in 1989. She and her family now live in northern Utah, where they enjoy skiing, camping, hiking, and boating in the beautiful Wasatch mountains.

Infinite Flow Dance is an award-winning Los Angeles-based professional dance company that employs disabled and nondisabled dancers with diverse, intersectional identities. As a nonprofit, our mission is to advance disability inclusion, one dance at a time. Since 2015, Infinite Flow has performed over 200 times, from school assemblies to events at Apple, Microsoft, adidas, and Red Bull, and other high-profile corporations. Our dance videos have been viewed over 100 million times across social media, and our dancers have been featured on NBC Today, Good Morning America, PBS, Inside Edition, and other national and international media outlets. Infinite Flow was founded by Marisa Hamamoto, a stroke survivor and late-diagnosed Autistic. Marisa recently became the first professional dancer named People Magazine's “Women Changing the World.” Infinite Flow Dance is a robust social justice entity committed to radical inclusion, systems change, and producing transformational experiences. Infinite Flow Dance is available for performances, keynotes, panels, school assemblies, and accessibility & inclusion workshops, virtually and in person.