response_ability, an AIGA Design Educators Conference, aims to foster an ongoing dialogue and debate about design ethics, sustainability and design education. How can we (should we?) create students who feel a responsibility to their world? How do we, as educators, instill the capacity for our students to become thinking, ethical designers? Where do we find ourselves between these theories and practices? And how do we translate the ideas of AIGA’s The Living Principles in the classroom and beyond?

Through a series of group discussions, workshops, lectures, speakers and learning sessions, opportunities for open dialogue will be facilitated. Participants will be encouraged to share their challenges and achievements with others, uncover our educational shortcomings, identify our responsibilities, and offer pathways to solutions, all for the greater good of design and the global community.