Get Involved Year-Round

Together We Build — Beyond Parade Day!

The parade brings us together. What we build together can change our city all year long.

Inspired by the Parade? Stay Involved!

Disability Pride NYC is more than one day of marching, rolling, performing, and celebrating. It's a community built through 11 years of relationships, shared experiences, creativity, advocacy, and collective action.

The parade is just the beginning. Join us in building opportunities for connection, creativity, accessibility, and disabled leadership throughout the year.

Whether you're a disabled New Yorker, student, artist, advocate, family member, community organization, cultural institution, or city agency, there are opportunities to participate, share your work, connect with others, and help build a more accessible and welcoming New York City.

Want to get involved?

Email disabilityprideparadepresident@gmail.com and tell us what interests you. Whether you'd like to participate, share an event, volunteer, collaborate, or help plan for 2027, we'd love to hear from you.

How Would You Like to Get Involved?

Already doing great work in New York City? We want more people to discover it.

Share your organization's programs, events, and opportunities. Our goal is to strengthen connections, expand participation, and celebrate the work already happening across our communities.

Together We Build — on parade day and throughout the year!


Eleven Years of Community. A Future We're Building Together.

For 11 years, Disability Pride NYC has brought together disabled people, families, artists, advocates, schools, cultural institutions, community organizations, city agencies, and allies to celebrate disability pride, justice, creativity, leadership, and community.

Over the years, an estimated 500-plus organizations have participated in or contributed to Disability Pride NYC — marching, rolling, performing, volunteering, advocating, sharing resources, and helping bring the parade to life.

In 2026 alone, more than 50 community organizations and city agencies are participating through tables and activities at Union Square.

Behind these numbers is something even more valuable: 11 years of relationships, trust, generosity, shared experience, and extraordinary community goodwill.

We are exploring how to turn those relationships into more opportunities for people to participate in the life of our city, while supporting and celebrating the organizations that make those opportunities possible.

Our vision is a year-round, disability-led collaboration, building on existing annual free community events — including the July Disability Pride Borough Presidents' events, the Disability Unite Festival, and the Disability Pride NYC Parade — to bring our communities together in celebration of disability pride, creativity, advocacy, and collective achievements.

Our Idea Is Simple

Build on the relationships developed through 11 years of Disability Pride NYC to help more people discover, experience, and participate in the outstanding programs, events, and opportunities offered by organizations across New York City.

We envision an accessible, shared calendar of events and opportunities, supported by community communications and collaborations that help people discover activities, connect with participating organizations, and get involved throughout the year.

Participating organizations could share their programs, reach new audiences, exchange expertise, and develop collaborations that advance their own missions while benefiting the wider community.

Each year, the Disability Pride NYC Parade can bring these relationships, experiences, creative work, and achievements together in a joyful, citywide celebration of disability pride, community, and collective power.

One City. Many Communities. Shared Possibilities.

New York City Belongs — to All of Us!

New York City Belongs is a youth-led initiative of Project Access for All, bringing together disabled and non-disabled young people, including many City University of New York (CUNY) students and alumni.

Through New York City Belongs, young people are taking leadership in connecting communities, expanding participation, and exploring ways to make New York City more accessible and welcoming.

In collaboration with Disability Pride NYC and other community partners, the initiative can also bring young people together with artists, advocates, educators, cultural workers, and community leaders across generations.

Imagine joining one another throughout the year at citywide parades, neighborhood festivals, cultural events, museums, performances, sports, recreation, and community celebrations.

Together, we can discover new opportunities, build friendships, share experiences, identify barriers, and work with event organizers, community organizations, and city agencies to expand access and participation.

Three Ways to Build Together

Explore & Participate

Discover and participate in events and activities across New York City, from annual parades and neighborhood celebrations to museums, performances, sports, recreation, and cultural programs offered by participating organizations.

Participation can take many forms — attending an event, performing, volunteering, creating art, advocating, sharing expertise, helping improve accessibility, or helping shape what happens next.

Opportunities to Get Involved

Learn & Expand Access

Share lived experiences and accessibility expertise, identify barriers, and collaborate with event organizers, cultural institutions, and city agencies to explore practical improvements.

This includes physical, sensory, communication, digital, and programmatic access, as well as opportunities for disabled people to participate in planning, leadership, and decision-making.

We hope to highlight and connect people with the important accessibility work, training, and resources already being provided by organizations throughout New York City.

Opportunities to Get Involved

Connect & Build Opportunity

Strengthen relationships among organizations and communities while helping people discover opportunities for mentorship, disabled leadership, arts and cultural careers, employment, entrepreneurship, advocacy, and civic participation.

We also hope to connect young people and emerging professionals with educational, artistic, and career opportunities, building on the expertise and programs of participating organizations.

Opportunities to Get Involved

Celebrating the Work of Our Community Partners

Our greatest strength is the extraordinary work already happening across New York City.

Disability Pride NYC has grown through the contributions of organizations, artists, advocates, educators, cultural institutions, and community members who bring their own missions, expertise, programs, relationships, and vision.

Through relationships with Project Access for All and its youth-led New York City Belongs initiative, Art Beyond Sight, Disability Unite, Independent Living Centers, disability-led organizations, schools, cultural institutions, city agencies, and many others, we have an opportunity to strengthen an extraordinary foundation of collaboration.

We hope to help more people discover the programs and expertise of participating organizations — from cultural access and arts education to disability advocacy, independent living, employment, and civic participation.

Building Pathways to Arts and Cultural Careers

We hope to build on existing resources, including Art Beyond Sight's Careers in the Arts for People with Disabilities, developed under a contract with the National Endowment for the Arts, to create pathways from arts education to professional development and competitive employment.

These pathways can begin early. Students could receive support in exploring their talents, preparing portfolios and auditions for competitive arts high schools, and developing their skills as artists, performers, musicians, and future cultural workers.

Emerging artists and young professionals could build resumes and portfolios, gain performance and exhibition credits, connect with mentors, and develop professional relationships and opportunities for paid work.

The artistic excellence, professional expertise, and goodwill within the Disability Pride NYC and Disability Unite communities — including music and arts festivals, cultural organizations, educators, artists, and production professionals — provide a valuable foundation for collaboration.

Together, we can explore mentorship, professional introductions, hands-on experiences, and career pathways in performance, exhibition development, sound engineering, event production, arts administration, and other cultural professions.

Our vision is a pathway from discovering talent to developing professional credentials, artistic recognition, and competitive employment — with disabled artists and cultural workers helping shape opportunities for the next generation.

Your Mission. Your Expertise. Our Shared Community.

Our partners remain the experts and leaders in their own work. Disability Pride NYC helps bring that work to wider audiences and creates opportunities for collaboration.

Participating organizations can share their events and programs, introduce people to one another's work, and explore collaborations that advance their own missions.

Programs remain identified with the organizations that create and lead them. Each partner retains its own identity, leadership, and ownership of its work.

Partnership does not require an organization to change its mission or commit to activities beyond its interests and capacity.

Participation is flexible. Organizations may share an event, contribute expertise, collaborate on an activity, or help shape future celebrations — according to their interests and capacity.

We believe strong partnerships grow through mutual respect, shared visibility, clear communication, and opportunities that benefit everyone involved.

When our partners thrive, our whole community grows stronger.

Disabled Leadership at the Center

Disability Pride NYC is rooted in the understanding that disabled people must have the opportunity, resources, and power to shape the communities in which we live.

As this year-round vision develops, disabled people and participating community organizations will help identify priorities, propose activities, share accessibility knowledge, and shape the collaborations they choose to join.

This means recognizing lived experience as expertise, ensuring accessibility in decision-making, and supporting leadership across generations and disability communities.

Nothing about us without us — and so much more becomes possible when we build together.

The Parade: Celebrating What We Build Together

The annual Disability Pride NYC Parade is an opportunity to bring community experiences, creative work, partnerships, and achievements together in a joyful, citywide celebration.

Our Eight Theme Blocks of Pride and Union Square Celebration highlight programs, performances, creative projects, accessibility initiatives, community partnerships, and the leadership of organizations and individuals throughout New York City.

The parade celebrates what our communities have accomplished, recognizes the people and organizations advancing disability pride and justice, and creates opportunities for new connections and collaborations.

Looking Ahead to 2027: 50 Years of Section 504

In 2027, we will mark the 50th anniversary of the historic 1977 Section 504 sit-ins, when disabled activists and allies organized to demand enforcement of their civil rights.

This anniversary offers a meaningful opportunity to honor the people and organizations whose leadership helped transform disability rights — and to carry forward their legacy of collective action, self-determination, solidarity, and disabled leadership.

We look forward to joining and supporting organizations already planning major commemorative events for this historic anniversary, helping connect communities, share opportunities for participation, and amplify the important work underway.

Together, we can explore additional ways to recognize this history throughout the year, engage new generations in disability rights and advocacy, and bring these experiences and partnerships into the 2027 Disability Pride NYC Parade.

Join Us in Honoring This History and Building What's Next!

We invite disabled people, advocates, students, artists, community organizations, cultural institutions, and city agencies to get involved.

Join anniversary events, share your organization's plans, volunteer, contribute your creativity, help connect communities, or collaborate on activities leading up to the 2027 parade.

Already planning a Section 504 anniversary event? We'd like to help share your work and connect more people with opportunities to participate.

Interested in helping commemorate the anniversary or plan the 2027 parade? Email disabilityprideparadepresident@gmail.com

Together, we honor our history, celebrate disabled leadership, and build on the power of collective action.

Building a Sustainable Future Together

Our long-term goal is a sustainable, disability-led collaboration that supports year-round participation, accessibility, artistic and cultural opportunities, and community leadership.

We hope to develop this model with participating organizations, community members, foundations, businesses, and public partners, drawing on their expertise and exploring funding and resource-sharing opportunities that benefit the community.

Supporting the Connections That Make Collaboration Possible

Meaningful collaboration requires resources.

Funding could support accessible communications, a shared events calendar, community coordination, outreach, accessibility services, and opportunities to compensate disabled artists and cultural workers for their contributions.

We also hope to document what works, share successful practices, and demonstrate how collaboration can expand access, participation, and opportunity across New York City.

We welcome community members, organizations, foundations, businesses, and city agencies interested in helping shape and sustain this vision.

Interested in partnering, contributing expertise, or exploring ways to support this work?

Contact disabilityprideparadepresident@gmail.com.

Our City. Our Community. Our Pride. Our Power.

Disability justice means more than being invited into spaces. It means having the access, opportunity, resources, and power to participate fully, contribute our talents, make decisions, and shape the communities in which we live.

Eleven years of relationships. Hundreds of participating organizations. Countless connections. One growing community.

Celebrating the work of our partners. Connecting our communities. Building opportunities together.

The parade brings us together. The city is where we keep building.

Together We Build!

Join us. Share your ideas. Help shape what's next.

disabilityprideparadepresident@gmail.com