Access North Carolina

04/03/2026

A colleague at the North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities (NCCDD) shared this information with me today about Dix Park in Raleigh:

ASL Guided Walking Tour
Explore the park's past, present & future with a special ASL Guided Walking Tour in honor of Deaf History Month. While all are welcome, this tour is intended for people who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Register today for Saturday, April 11 from 12:00—2:00 pm.:

https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdixpark.us15.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3D5fd6a219e99654c36782c0dfa%26id%3Dd177b627dd%26e%3Dba5e187c48&data=05%7C02%7Cphilip.c.woodward%40dhhs.nc.gov%7Ca32306fd28924fe992ff08de90fe7ec1%7C7a7681dcb9d0449a85c3ecc26cd7ed19%7C0%7C0%7C639107619895507877%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=xk30bLxUdF0dIxMqT8XZktc0i3VPw8jNcqXY1%2B9WYVo%3D&reserved=0

🙂🤟🌳

ASL Guided Walking Tour April 11, 2026 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM Registration Event details Explore the park's past, present & future Location Stone Houses Visitor Center Category Tours Event Details In honor of Deaf History Month, join us for an ASL accessible walking tour!Lace up your walking shoes and j...

03/28/2026

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, and I had a meeting this week to discuss bringing back the ACCESS North Carolina travel guide in some format! Also, spring break is starting this weekend for school systems across our state, and I hope families of students with disabilities will find plenty of accessible places to visit over the next week! 🙂

01/28/2026

I haven't posted here in awhile because this page receives very little engagement, but maybe I can revive it a bit in 2026! I received an e-mail today from Waypoint Adventure with this information about "Rock Climbing For All" at Fiddlehead Farm and Forest in Fletcher out in Western North Carolina:

"Join us for three fully accessible rock climbing programs designed for youth and young adults with disabilities ages 6-22. Discover what’s possible in an inclusive and supportive environment!"

Learn more here: https://waypoint-adventure-nc.jumbula.com/. 🙂🪨

Waypoint Adventure is a leading organization dedicated to providing inclusive outdoor adventure programs for individuals with disabilities. Waypoint is committed to empowering participants to ov...

07/29/2025

How did you celebrate the Americans with Disabilities Act's (ADA) 35th anniversary this past Saturday? I attended two ADA 35th anniversary celebrations last Thursday and took my oldest son to the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh on Saturday! Its African art gallery has a video panels where you can make a mosaic selfie on a screen featuring cropped images from a work created by the artist El Anatsui! Go check it out sometime! 🙂😮🎨🖥🤳

[Image depicts a video panel hanging on a wall featuring a pixillated image of Philip wearing a white and light blue T-shirt and dark shorts holding up his phone with a large yellow work of art adorning the wall behind him.]

07/11/2025

The Bechtler Museum of Modern Art in Charlotte will host a multi-sensory exhibition developed with input from a dancer with vision loss who contributed a poem to the ACCESS North Carolina travel guide for people with disabilities back when I worked on the publication: https://www.wcnc.com/article/features/bechtler-museum-modern-art-collection-reframed-we-are-here-beyond-vision/275-6cc1bc67-a5a2-496f-ac84-14d62c20cf33! I am very excited to see what this young man is doing in his professional career, and I hope to see this exhibition later this summer! 🙂🧑‍🦯🕺🎨

The exhibition runs from July 2 to Sept. 22.

06/11/2025

What accessible place do you want to travel to in North Carolina this summer? Please share your accessible travel photos and experiences with me if you'd like to! Thank you very much! 😎🌞⛰️🌲🌳🏙🛝🏖🌊👨‍🦼👨‍🦽👨‍🦯👩‍🦯🦻

04/29/2025

I appreciate the Exceptional Children's Assistance Center - ECAC giving me the opportunity to present about ACCESS North Carolina and accessible tourism for a Tool Tume Tuesday segment today! I want everybody with a disability or an accessibility need to be able to positively experience any part of our state that they want to visit! I hope everyone who came today learned something new that they did not know exists in North Carolina! 🙂

[Image depicts a Zoom screenshot with a Relay Conference Captioning panel, a PowerPoint slide titled "Where in North Carolina Do You Want to Visit?", and Zoom video panels.]

04/23/2025

On Tuesday, April 29th, the Exceptional Children's Assistance Center - ECAC will host a Tool Time Tuesday session focused on ACCESS North Carolina! Read the description and register here if you are interested in joining us to learn more:

Check Out Our April Lineup for Tool Time Tuesdays!



Our Tool Time Segments are 30 minutes or less and will feature a resource or a tool that you can add to your toolbox to help you advocate for your child and make informed decisions. Every Tuesday at noon, ECAC staff and/or community partners will select a tool or resource to talk about, and explain how you can use it and where you can find it.

Tool Time Tuesdays can be accessed via Zoom.

Tuesdays at Noon

April 29th

ACCESS North Carolina Travel Guide

Do you and your family love to travel? Do you have a family member who has accessibility needs to consider when traveling? Do you ever have trouble finding accessible places to visit in North Carolina? Come learn about the ACCESS North Carolina travel guide and find out how you can stay updated on accessible tourism opportunities in our state.

Presented by: Phillip Woodward, Systems Change Manager, Council on Developmental Disabilities (NCCDD)

Click here to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/9117430117154/WN_bEHHAIduSjqWmnG32SMutA #/registration

Thank you very much for joining us and sharing this announcement! 🙂

4/1/25: Meet ECAC's Military Outreach Coordinator - As the Military Outreach coordinator with ECAC, I help military families navigate special education for public and DoDea systems. We will discuss MiC3, MCEC, S2S, purple star schools, how to navigate special education with DoDea, public schools and...

03/28/2025

This week I received the following e-mail about a concert with ASL interpretation in Raleigh on April 5th:

Subject: upcoming concert with reserved section for ASL interpreter users

The NC Division for Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Regional Center are doing a concert on April 5th at Meymandi Concert Hall titled: Tales of Enchantment.
It features Bartok’s Mythic Parable told through music and spoken-word with 170-voice Chorale, orchestra, soloists, and Assistive Sign Langauge narrator.
We have reserved a section of seats near the ASL narrator.
To purchase those tickets , use the password of "ASL" to access the reserved seating section- by online.
This password will work online when purchasing through Ticketmaster, but is not needed if purchasing in person at the Box Office.

Look Forward to seeing you all there!

Christine Kastner
she/her/hers
Executive Director
North Carolina Master Chorale
PO Box 562 ǀ Raleigh, NC 27602
(919) 301-8022 Office
(910) 624-6023 Mobile
www.ncmasterchorale.org

Please feel free to share! Thank you! 🙂🎼🤟

Founded in 1942, the North Carolina Master Chorale is committed to bringing the very finest in choral music performance to Triangle audiences.

03/02/2025

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, and many colleges have their spring break in March! If you are a person with a disability or a family member of a person with a disability, where in North Carolina do you like to travel this month?? 🙂🍀⛰️🏙🏖

01/24/2025

During a trip to Carolina Beach earlier this month, I walked across the Boardwalk and saw an AccessRec beach access mat extending part of the way across the sand. The organization Ocean Cure maintains it, and they have told me they take the mat apart before hurricanes and other off-season storms come, but it's nice to know that beachgoers with disabilities can get onto the sand during the winter! 🙂🏖🩵

[The image depict the beach access mat looking toward the water, a close-up photo of the light blue mat, and the beach access mat looking toward the Courtyard Marriott Hotel.]