Accessibility Services

Ava Locks has over twenty years of experience in creating inclusive programming, with a focus on accessible and equitable experiences for all audiences, regardless of ability or background.

Her community-based approach leans into available resources and partnerships within the local area and engages with the ideas and practices of underrepresented populations in that community. Locks leverages these tools to ensure equitable access to the arts through programs that reach diverse and multi-generational audiences.

Her work began in children’s museums, where she designed exhibitions and programs to be accessible for children with disabilities. This included providing accommodations for children with Autism to explore exhibitions in a modified environment with reduced sensory stimuli, designated quiet spaces, and additional assistive technologies.

After obtaining her degree in special education, Locks continued working in-house at art institutions to develop accessible and equitable multi-generational programming. During this period, she focused on arts education for early childhood and school-age children, indigenous populations, neurodivergent and disabled audiences, non-native English speakers and English-language learners, teen programs, and families. Notable accomplishments from this time include launching accessible and sensory-friendly programming at multiple arts and cultural institutions.

In her last position, where she worked with a rotating roster of international multidisciplinary artists-in-residence, Locks developed bespoke educational programming around each artist’s practice. She leveraged their background to engage new and diverse audiences. This allowed her to bring in new populations that had historically felt excluded from the fine arts community and empower them as artists in their own right.

Most recently, Locks began a freelance accessibility consulting and training service and launched that project as ACCESSforALL (AfA) earlier this year. At AfA, we consult a wide array of businesses on best practices for accessibility and inclusion, with a focus on visitor services, digital accessibility, and engaging neurodivergent audiences. Our work emphasizes moving beyond compliance with local regulations and creating a radical vision for a more accessible and equitable community.