Representation, Adaptation, and Accessibility

Since 2013, Mindfulness First has equipped thousands of children and adults with mindfulness-based mental health skills and strategies. During our first decade as an organization, it has become clear that our current programming and curriculum, while effective and evidence-based, require additional adaptation and growth in order to effectively serve the populations that need us most.

This journey began with specialists from the Arizona State Schools for the Deaf and Blind who wanted to learn our curriculum and help adapt it for their low-incidence population. This population is at higher risk for depression, anxiety, and suicide than their seeing and hearing peers, and yet their access to mental health resources is extremely limited due to its specialized nature.

As we work to create programming specifically for the low-vision/blind, hard of hearing/deaf and Deafblind community, we are additionally working to ensure that our programming is adapted for varying neurodiversities and abilities.

Website Accessibility Note: We acknowledge that our own website needs revisions in order to make it more accessibility-friendly. We are in the process of exploring funding and resource options to address this important need.

A participant at the ASDB Academic Bowl signs their response

What We’re Up To

We are excited to announce that we began Phase I of this 36-month project in February 2024! The Design Circle Curriculum Development Team is currently updating our core curriculum for adults and children. This phase includes producing a rough prototype that will be piloted by focus groups. Phases II and III, which will adapt to core curriculum for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Blind/Visually-Impaired and Deafblind adults and children, is currently expected to begin in spring 2025. Our next step will be recruiting a small team of Accessibility Specialist that will create these adaptations.

In addition to the Design Circle and Accessibility Specialist teams, we’ll be inviting select experts to consult on pieces of our new curriculum to ensure it’s accessible to adults and students of all backgrounds, abilities and identities.

The project is estimated to be completed in December 2026, pending funding.