About Us
The W in our logo represents a picture of Drew raising his arms after earning his purple belt in Karate, which is a testament to his efforts and all those people and creative solutions which enabled him to achieve his goals. Neon green is Drew’s favorite color.
Our Story
Our Journey With Drew
Drew is a sweet, funny, and beautiful person. He was diagnosed with autism at 16 months of age. We tried everything to help him develop and learn and faced all the challenges confronting new parents of children with autism. There are so many options and advice which lead to an overwhelming array of decisions, all the while facing legal, school, financial, and insurance issues.
We eventually settled on an approach which worked best for Drew. Our goal is to keep him safe and happy and work to ensure he will be well taken care of when we can no longer do so. It is a journey and there is a long way to go but every day we try to take a step closer towards helping him. A behavioral approach worked best for Drew and through it he has learned some amazing skills which enrich his life such as Karate and cooking.
Drew is verbal, but has severe challenges with communication and social. He needs constant supervision (1:1). Fortunately he as some amazing people in his life who care for him. His brother helps him and worked with him over the pandemic assisting with his program. His teachers, therapists, and technicians are kind people who care deeply for Drew and we are so thankful that they share in our love for him.
During my time at Microsoft I was responsible for helping enterprise customers understand how technology could digitally transform their business. As the parent of a son with autism it was very apparent to me that there was a big technology gap. In many cases pen and paper were still being used, and data collection and sharing left a lot to be desired. There were so many opportunities for technology to help Drew.
We discovered one clear need when we added a cooking class to Drew’s program in high school and were faced with challenges on how to communicate with him in a crowded kitchen. We needed to teach sanitary and safe behaviors while fostering independence, so we developed a solution for him.
The solution allowed us to help Drew engage in activities which enrich his life, such as Karate, while enabling independence. Drew is now a master green belt, and frequently practices karate in his downtime. During the pandemic we adapted the solution for remote work which helped Drew participate in group classes allowing his behaviorist to communicate with him without disrupting the class.
We love Drew but worry about his future. We want to ensure his safety so we build solutions to help him acquire the skills he needs to remain safe. We want him to be happy, so we build solutions to help increase his independence and social skills. We built this company to help other parents do the same.
–Leo Junquera, Drew’s dad
Who we are
Drew Junquera
Drew is the Chairman of the Board
He has 17 years of experience with autism and is the ultimate consumer of the solutions we develop.
Allison Junquera
Drew’s mother and President of EnableWear
Allison has also spent over 20 years in technology sales, operations, training and recruiting. She is a Director of Search for a boutique IT Recruitment firm. First and foremost, however, she identifies herself as a Mom. She has been working countless hours over the course of Drew’s 17 years of life with him and his multidisciplinary therapy teams helping to define programs and implement them.
It has been her dream to marry her professional skills with the one thing she is most passionate about; helping her son with autism become independent, safe and happy in life.
The development of EnableWear has dramatically supported Drew in accomplishing these goals. He is able to participate in activities that were once extremely difficult, develop new hobbies and be more independent in social settings and the community than ever before.
Allison’s dream was to scale this product in such away that other families can realize their dreams too!
Leo Junquera
Drew’s father and inventor
Leo has spent over 20 years in technology, starting out as a developer eventually becoming a Chief Information Officer of a Capital Markets Group prior to joining Microsoft. At Microsoft, he worked in the Financial Services vertical covering Azure for the largest financial services companies in the US, and the world. The focus of his job is helping companies digitally transform through the innovative use of cloud services. Currently Leo is a Managing Director in the Microsoft Practice at EY focused on the financial services industry.
Leo has been an advocate for autism topics from legislation to employment. He was the founder of the Financial Services Autism Hackathon, an annual event which brings together developers from the financial services industry to work with the latest technology innovations on projects which will be most impactful for families of children with autism.