What is Project Access NYC?
Project Access NYC (PANYC) is a series of citywide initiatives designed to connect cultural institutions and entertainment venues with audiences with disabilities. It is also a New York City metro portal for Project Access for All, which is home to the first national database of accessible places and programs, as well as an open-source accessibility and inclusion best practices resource center. Project Access for All works on a national level, while Project Access NYC provides a vital forum for diverse voices within the city’s accessibility community.
How Does Project Access NYC Work?
Project Access NYC creates opportunities for direct engagement between arts and cultural agencies from all boroughs and disability groups, making the wealth of resources of this great cultural mecca available to all lovers of art and culture, including those with disabilities. Through Project Access NYC anyone can find out about the accessible art, science, history, and children’s museums, aquariums, botanical gardens, dance companies, galleries, libraries, parks and historic sites, sports arenas, theaters, zoos, and other cultural and entertainment centers in the New York City area. Finding strength in numbers, PANYC’s participating organizations and community members seek to
- Create the infrastructure for accessible and inclusive cultural resources for people of all ages and abilities.
- Make accessibility integral to all aspects of the day-to-day operation of cultural organizations.
- Educate stakeholders and top-level decision makers at cultural institutions about the needs of people with visible and invisible disabilities.
- Encourage leaders of the future to become aware of and then insist upon best practices at cultural institutions for welcoming audiences of all abilities.
Why NYC?
New Yorkers are known to speak up and be “out-of-the-box” thinkers. Boasting a wealth of diverse and excellent cultural institutions, New York City is one of the premier arts and cultural centers in the world. The Big Apple is also home to more than a million people with disabilities, the largest such concentration in the country. These factors make New York City the ideal hub to create model programs aimed at ensuring full accessibility to all of the arts for everyone, everywhere.