Ford’s Theatre works with First Chair Interpreted Productions to offer American Sign Language interpreters for performances. We recently spoke with Amanda Welly, a D.C. interpreter, to talk about the service. 

David Chu, founder of c2 (Caption Coalition), Inc., which provides caption services for Ford’s Theatre performances, sat down with us to share why his work is so valuable to patrons including those who are deaf or have hearing loss. 

Ford’s Theatre offers a variety of accessibility services for persons with low vision or blindness, including braille programs and audio description for theatrical performances. We recently spoke with Janet Carsetti and Bob Coley, two longtime Ford’s describers from Metropolitan Washington Ear, about the assistance Audio Description provides and what patrons can expect at those performances.

As part of our commitment to accessibility, Ford’s Theatre recently partnered with the Smithsonian Institution to host a sensory-friendly Morning at the Museum. We built on the lessons learned through our sensory-friendly performance of The Wiz to make our museum easily accessible to those with sensory sensitivities.

Ford’s Theatre has made a commitment to increase access and inclusion to our museum and theatre. Hosting a Sensory-Friendly performance was a great way to welcome new audiences to our space in an environment designed to welcome and embrace everyone.

Ford's Theatre has made it a priority to increase access to the historic site. As part of an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Museums Empowered grant, we hosted a two-day workshop with leaders in the field of museum accessibility to evaluate our site needs and brainstorm solutions. Read about what we learned and how it helped us develop a roadmap of solutions to implement in the future.