In December 2002 MoMA was honored by NYSA for providing access for individuals with hearing loss to its programs and services. NYSA's 2002 Community Leader of the Year Award was presented to Francesca Rosenberg, Assistant Director, Department of Education, and Coordinator, MoMA Access Programs; and Leah Schroder Fox, Assistant, MoMA Access Programs. Rosenberg and Schroder Fox were selected for their roles in shaping and promoting the innovative programs that have made MoMA a model for other institutions seeking to serve visitors with hearing loss.

Over 28 million Americans are deaf or hearing disabled, including one-third of those 70 years old and older. While many deaf people benefit from programs that include sign language interpretation, a far larger number of Americans with lesser degrees of hearing loss are unable to fully participate in cultural activities.

MoMA began to address this issue in 1995, when its Access Programs for people with disabilities and special needs introduced a portable sound enhancement system for the Museum's Gallery Talks, which sends amplified sound through headphones connected to small FM receivers, to complement the existing theater-based infrared system. Since then, the Museum has continually expanded its accessibility to people with hearing loss, offering services such as sound amplification headsets, captioned videos, Computer Assisted Real Time (CART) captioning for Brown Bag Lectures and other select Public Programs, and transcripts of the Acoustiguide audio program.

For information about programs and services at MoMA for people with hearing loss, call Leah Schroder Fox, MoMA Access Programs Assistant, 212/708-9864 (voice), 212/247-1230 (TTY), or e-mail accessprograms@moma.org, or visit their web site at www.moma.org/