Arts for Children

Accessible Arts, Inc. (AAI) unlocks the arts for children with disabilities and advocates access to the arts. Advocacy, education and collaboration are essential components in accomplishing our objectives. Through the arts, children develop critical thinking skills, take risks in a safe environment and experience successes.

AAI began as the Kansas State Board of Education Arts with the Handicapped Program in 1980. AAI was incorporated as an independent not-for-profit arts and disabilities organization in Kansas in 1988 and recognized by Missouri as a not-for-profit in 1995.

AAI has received the Kansas Governor's Arts Award for Outstanding Arts Organization, the Y.O.U. Award for Outstanding Agency in Wyandotte County, and the Kansas City Missouri Mayor's Committee for People with Disabilities Award in recognition of our successful inclusion of children with disabilities in arts experiences.

AAI's innovative and diverse arts programming crosses cultural, geographic and economic boundaries to touch the lives of thousands of children with disabilities. AAI has conducted programs across Kansas from inner city public schools in African-American and Hispanic communities in Kansas City to rehabilitation centers in Wichita to rural schools near Garden City. AAI often collaborates with other agencies and acts as a catalyst for collaborative arts projects, training, demonstrations and exhibitions with disability themes.