Project Phoenix
A learning space and community built around lived experience and practical systems for navigating disability, accessibility, independence, and personal growth.
A learning space and community built around lived experience and practical systems for navigating disability, accessibility, independence, and personal growth.
About Me
Hi, I'm Aden. I was born and raised in Los Angeles and grew up navigating life with Sturge-Weber Syndrome, vision loss, epilepsy, and glaucoma.
A lot of Project Phoenix comes from trying to answer a simple question: How do you build a life that actually works for you when the world was not designed with you in mind?
Over time, I realized that independence rarely comes from motivation alone. More often, it comes from building systems, routines, tools, and support structures that make daily life more manageable.
I was fortunate to become Valedictorian at a school for students with learning differences and later earned my degree in Applied Anthropology. Anthropology reinforced something I already believed from experience: people learn best through shared stories, lived experiences, and practical knowledge.
Whether I'm working in customer service, analyzing hospitality data, or researching accessibility tools, I'm constantly looking for ways to work smarter, simplify systems, and prioritize meaningful experiences over appearances or material things.
Project Phoenix is where I share what I've learned through personal experience, research, trial and error, and conversations with others navigating similar challenges.
About the Project
Project Phoenix was created as a place to document practical lessons learned through navigating disability, accessibility, work, mobility, and independence.
A lot of the information surrounding these topics can feel either overly clinical or disconnected from the realities of everyday life. My goal is to bridge that gap by combining lived experience with personal research and practical experimentation.
Some things shared here may work well for one person and not for another. The purpose is not to present a perfect blueprint, but to contribute ideas, tools, and perspectives that may help others build systems that work for them.
At its core, Project Phoenix is about learning, adapting, and sharing knowledge openly so fewer people feel like they have to figure everything out alone.
The Mission: Four Chambers of the Forge
The Forge Community
This work is harder in isolation. The Forge Community is a space for people navigating disability and accessibility challenges to share experiences, exchange practical strategies, and learn from one another while building greater independence.
Enter the Community