Abilities!

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Abilities! at the Foundation Center in Manhattan

November 22, 2005

Fran Prezant, Director of Research and Training at Abilities! was an invited panelist at the Foundation Center in Manhattan on November 22 for the program Access for All: Successful Planning and Fundraising for Accessible Programs . The session was designed to discuss how funders, staff at cultural institutions, advocates for people with disabilities and disability related organizations work together to make public places and programs open to all New Yorkers. The other panelists included Andrew Fisher, Executive Director of the Lavelle Foundation for the Blind, Inc. and Ken Struve, Director of School and Social Service Programs at the South Street Seaport Museum. The program was presented in collaboration with the Museum Access Consortium.

The presentation represented a balance of perspectives on the issue of access by people with disabilities and fundraising towards these efforts that ultimately promote full participation in society. Examples of funded access projects were discussed in which Abilities! had been instrumental including one with the South Street Seaport Museum that provided staff awareness training and website accessibility improvements, one with the Nassau County Museum of Art that increased access to their sculpture collection, and one with the Lower East Side Tenement Museum that provided interactive tours to students with mobility issues via distance technology.

Among other issues tackled by the panelists were: grant writing strategies, the importance of partnerships and the inclusion of stakeholders with disabilities in the planning process of any programmatic or physical access changes. Charlotte Dion, the moderator representing the Foundation Center, discussed their own increasing awareness and efforts to be accessible to users at the Foundation Center Library. Andy Fisher highlighted critical aspects of proposals that funders look for and Ken Struve addressed the museum/social service perspective of collaborative partnerships in grant writing, project planning and implementation. For further information, contact Fran Prezant at

Abilities! has also been Spotlighted on their Talking About Philanthropy page (posted November 9).

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