🚀 We’re thrilled to announce our new program, FUTURES! 🚀 Futures is a free three-month experience designed to empower Disabled and Neurodiverse youth (18-30) to explore their identity, connect with their community, and grow into bold, authentic leaders. This program is perfect for youth who are ready to invest in themselves and step into their full potential. Through creative workshops, community-building, and leadership development, Futures will help participants build the confidence to lead on their own terms. It’s all about finding your voice, owning your story, and creating real impact. PROGRAM DETAILS: Spring Cohort: May 5 – August 15, 2025 Application Deadline: April 15, 2025 at 11:59 PM EST Learn more & apply to FUTURES here: https://lnkd.in/dXw2Zuk9 [Video Description: A graphic video with text that reads, The future looks good on you. The words of the phrase come into frame one at a time, once the phrase is complete, the colours shift and the phrase enters the screen one word at a time. The video is in shades of purple, grey, black and white.] #AccessNow #AccessNowFutures #Futures #FutureDreaming #BeingTogether #IRL #TheFutureLooksGoodOnYou
AccessNow
Technology, Information and Internet
Toronto, Ontario 6,437 followers
your go-to resource for accessibility information of places and experiences worldwide
About us
At AccessNow our mission is to establish a go-to resource for accessibility information. We are building a connected platform to empower all people to discover a world of accessible opportunities, make better decisions and remove barriers. Leveraging our intelligent technology, we are learning how accessible the world is and mapping as many places as we possibly can. We invite you to join us. A worldwide community, passionate about change, together we can empower each other to have access now. Every review added to our platform is one more instance of advocacy, one more experience that highlights the accessibility of a place. Every pin, every review counts. Want to learn more? Check out our website to understand how our technology works or find out how to get involved.
- Website
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https://accessnow.com
External link for AccessNow
- Industry
- Technology, Information and Internet
- Company size
- 11-50 employees
- Headquarters
- Toronto, Ontario
- Type
- Privately Held
- Founded
- 2015
- Specialties
- accessibility, advocacy, activism, community, AI/ML, AccessOutdoors, GIS, data, technology, disability inclusion, travel, tourism, navigation, inclusive design, and disability education
Locations
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Primary
Get directions
192 Spadina Ave
Toronto, Ontario M5T 2C2, CA
Employees at AccessNow
Updates
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AccessNow reposted this
🚀 FUTURES REGISTRATION IS OPEN 🚀 How do you invest in yourself? How do you build meaningful connections? How do you impact your community? How do you shape the future? FUTURES supports Disabled, Neurodivergent, and equity-deserving folks aged 18 - 30 as they answer these questions for themselves. FUTURES is a three-month experience where you will join a cohort of like-minded individuals making an impact. You’ll be a part of weekly programming featuring creative workshops, guest speakers, facilitated discussions, mentorship, game nights, and good old fashion hang-outs. FUTURES empowers you to explore your identity, grow as a leader, and build lasting connections. ⭐️ PROGRAM DETAILS 📍 Toronto - Fall 2025 Application Deadline: July 31, 2025 Program: Sept 1 – Dec 12, 2025 💻 Virtual - Fall 2025 Application Deadline: July 31, 2025 Program: Sept 1 – Dec 12, 2025 This program requires a weekly commitment of attending programming for 3 hours per week (in person or virtual) and independent work up to 2 hours per week. This is where it starts. Together. Spaces are limited, visit our website and register today: https://lnkd.in/dXw2Zuk9 [Image Description: A promotional graphic for the FUTURES program. Black text and a Polaroid picture of the team are on a light purple background. Full text in alt text.]
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🚀 FUTURES REGISTRATION IS OPEN 🚀 How do you invest in yourself? How do you build meaningful connections? How do you impact your community? How do you shape the future? FUTURES supports Disabled, Neurodivergent, and equity-deserving folks aged 18 - 30 as they answer these questions for themselves. FUTURES is a three-month experience where you will join a cohort of like-minded individuals making an impact. You’ll be a part of weekly programming featuring creative workshops, guest speakers, facilitated discussions, mentorship, game nights, and good old fashion hang-outs. FUTURES empowers you to explore your identity, grow as a leader, and build lasting connections. ⭐️ PROGRAM DETAILS 📍 Toronto - Fall 2025 Application Deadline: July 31, 2025 Program: Sept 1 – Dec 12, 2025 💻 Virtual - Fall 2025 Application Deadline: July 31, 2025 Program: Sept 1 – Dec 12, 2025 This program requires a weekly commitment of attending programming for 3 hours per week (in person or virtual) and independent work up to 2 hours per week. This is where it starts. Together. Spaces are limited, visit our website and register today: https://lnkd.in/dXw2Zuk9 [Image Description: A promotional graphic for the FUTURES program. Black text and a Polaroid picture of the team are on a light purple background. Full text in alt text.]
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We are thrilled to be listed on the inaugural Forbes Accessibility 100 💙
Honoured to share that AccessNow and I have been named to the inaugural Forbes Accessibility 100 list: spotlighting leaders, innovators, and changemakers driving accessibility forward around the world. Over the last 10 years of building AccessNow, we have centered active engagement. More than just creating awareness or developing tech, our goal has always been to empower people of all lived experiences to be part of the change. Citizens, consumers, governments, and companies, together we are creating an inclusion revolution powered by diverse voices, bold ideas, and lived experience. “AccessNow… goes well beyond what Google and Airbnb provide. It really looks to engage people to action instead of being a passive player in accessibility.” — Forbes This recognition means so much, not just personally, but because it signals something bigger. At a time when DEIA is being questioned, defunded, or deprioritized, Forbes is taking a stand. With this list, they are reminding the world that accessibility is not a side issue; it is a powerful driver of innovation, creativity, and economic growth. And most importantly, it is a human right. Grateful to Alan Schwarz and the Forbes team for creating space for accessibility and disability leadership on the global stage. Congratulations to every disabled leader, ally, and advocate on this list and beyond. Progress and equity are hard-won battles, but together, this global community of visionaries is changing the world for the better. https://lnkd.in/gJX_FKQG
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We’re still feeling the impact of our first-ever #AccessFest. 🥳 As our CEO Maayan Ziv shared, this festival was built on the belief that accessibility deserves the spotlight - not as a checklist, but as a mindset, a strategy, and a space for connection, creativity, and freedom. Thank you to the City of Toronto, our sponsors, community partners, performers, panelists, volunteers, staff, food vendors, and every attendee who made this celebration of inclusion possible! #NAAW2025 #AccessNow #DisabilityInclusion #AccessibleCanada #InclusionMatters #Accessibility #AF2025
Yesterday we celebrated our first ever AccessFest and I’m still soaking it all in. AccessFest is about experiencing what’s possible when inclusion leads, when accessibility is the spark that brings people together. We built this festival with the belief that accessibility deserves the spotlight. Because accessibility is not just a checklist, it’s a mindset. A strategy. A way of creating connection, dignity, creativity, and freedom -for everyone. Thank you to the City of Toronto for partnering with us to launch a bold new festival. To every performer, partner, sponsor, panelist, volunteer, and guest: thank you for being part of something redefining the norm. To my incredible AccessNow team, thank you for believing in the vision. And to you, my beautiful community, you are the reason we’re here. Your advocacy, brilliance, and energy made this day possible. This was year one. And we’re just getting started.
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AccessNow reposted this
This morning, our client AccessNow CEO Maayan Ziv joined CP24 News Breakfast to spotlight AccessFest – a free, first-of-its-kind Toronto festival celebrating accessibility and showcasing artists who are breaking barriers in music, comedy and culture. Watch the full segment: https://lnkd.in/e8tPwhUw More than just an event, AccessFest is a bold celebration of accessibility, inclusion, and community. Join us for a powerful day where accessibility takes centre stage. 🎟️ Free to attend 📅 May 31 | 9:00 AM – 7:30 PM 📍 David Pecaut Square, Toronto 🔗 Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gPUiPUvs
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AccessNow reposted this
🎉 Exciting news — I’ll be a panelist alongside Jacob Cohen from The Daniels Corporation and Luke Anderson from StopGap Foundation at AccessFest’s ‘Design AF’ discussion on May 31. This unfiltered conversation will dive into innovation, accessibility, and inclusive design — topics I’m deeply passionate about. Brought to you by AccessNow in partnership with the City of Toronto, AccessFest is Toronto’s first-ever festival dedicated to celebrating accessibility and inclusion right in the heart of the city. It’s bold, necessary, and long overdue. It’s also no coincidence that the festival is held at David Pecaut Square, home to The Eternal Flame of Hope — inspired by the perseverance of disabled people, and burning as a reminder that society must be all-inclusive. I’m honoured to join this important event, where we’ll discuss public spaces, digital tools, and cultural design through a disability-forward lens. If you’re in Toronto, don’t miss this chance to experience a festival that puts access front and centre. It’s open, free, and designed for everyone. See you there! #AccessFest #Accessibility #InclusiveDesign #AF2025 #DisabilityCulture #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs #NationalAccessibilityWeek
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AccessNow reposted this
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility and Belonging (DEIAB) Leader, Consultant and Advisor
As we commemorate National AccessAbility Week this week, I am committed to the power of inclusive storytelling and its vital importance to accessibility. One of the principal barriers to accessibility are attitudinal barriers which are rooted in ableism. Ableism is a tendency to view us as disabled people as less worthy, underestimating our potential, or excluding us from decisions that affect us. And the most powerful way to combat ableism is through meaningful disability representation and sharing stories that shatter stereotypes and foster disability inclusion. Because, at the end of the day, stories have the power to not just reflect the world in which we live, but imagine the world we seek to build. In this regard, I am thrilled to share that I will be a panelist at AccessFest from the incredible Maayan Ziv and AccessNow on a panel about disability representation in media moderated by Ioanna Roumeliotis and alongside fellow panelists Andrew Morris and Gaitrie Persaud. If you are in Toronto on Saturday, May 31, join us at David Pecaut Square for a day of incredible, free, public programming on all things accessibility and disability inclusion and for our panel discussion at 4 PM that tackles the stories told about disabled people — and who gets to tell them. The conversation will explore media tropes, accessibility in production, and the transformative power of representation and inclusion. Check out the first comment to this post for the official website for AccessFest and its programming. #AccessFest #NAAW #NAAW2025 Image description: Promotional graphic for AccessFest's Unfiltered AF panel titled 'Represented AF: Disability in Media. Features photos and names of moderator loanna Roumeliotis (CBC) and panelists Andrew Morris (Hitsby Entertainment), Gaitrie Persaud (Phoenix The Fire), and Prasanna Ranganathan (DEIAB Leader). Event details: May 31, 2025, 4:00 PM to 4:45 PM at David Pecaut Square.
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Thrilled to share that Maayan Ziv, CEO of AccessNow, will be the keynote speaker at REACH: National Forum for Disabled Entrepreneurship on May 28, 1–3 PM ET! REACH is more than a forum - it’s a celebration of Disabled-Owned businesses and the possibilities that emerge when we centre lived experience in entrepreneurship. Hosted by Inclusive Workplace and Supply Council of Canada (IWSCC) and supported by Bell, REACH brings together disabled entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, and allies to celebrate inclusion, innovation, and community. Join us and register today 👉 https://lnkd.in/eJc6RMFS #REACH2025 #NationalAccessAbilityWeek #InclusiveBusiness #DisabilityInclusion Alt Text: A tall, grey event highlights a speaker for the 2025 Reach Forum. Its left side includes white, gold, and blue text, and its right side features a photo of the speaker lined with a gold streak. The text reads “Keynote Speaker. Maayan Ziv. Award-winning advocate, innovator, and entrepreneur. May 28. 1 to 3 pm Eastern Time.” Below, logos for the Reach Forum, its host the IWSCC, and forum supporter Bell Canada appear.
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AccessNow reposted this
The countdown is on – AccessFest launches May 31! We’re proud to support AccessFest, a first-of-its-kind, free festival in Toronto powered by our client AccessNow. More than just an event, AccessFest is a bold celebration of accessibility, inclusion, and community. Join us and be part of a powerful moment where accessibility takes centre stage. 🎟️ Free to attend 📅 All day on May 31 – From 09:00 AM to 07:30 PM 🔗 Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gPUiPUvs #AccessFest #InclusiveAF #AF2025
This morning, we officially launched the press release for AccessFest. Brought to you by AccessNow and in partnership with the City of Toronto, AccessFest is a bold new addition to the Toronto cultural festival landscape, championing accessibility and inclusion in the heart of the city. In a time when commitments to DEIA are being challenged, we’re creating a space where access is celebrated and non-negotiable. And you are all invited. Huge thanks to everyone who has supported this journey so far, including the incredible team at the City of Toronto. A special shoutout to Patrick Tobin and team for championing this work from the start. Your support means everything. 🟡 Visit http://accessfest.ca to learn more about our new festival 🔗 Read the full announcement: https://lnkd.in/gggZC9Uk #AccessFest #InclusiveAF #AF2025
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