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# Sundance accessibility team is assessing Boulder venues ahead of 2027 festival
- URL: https://www.readfoxtalk.com/sundance-accessibility-team-is-assessing-boulder-venues-ahead-of-2027-festival/
- Published: 2026-09-02T04:56:47.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-02T04:56:47.000Z
- Description: Festival director Eugene Hernandez said Sundance is working on ramps and accessibility assessments as it prepares for its first Boulder festival in January.
- Author: FoxTalk
- Tags: Arts & Culture

“For us, ADA compliance was just a baseline,” Sundance Film Festival Director Eugene Hernandez said Aug. 27 during a Colorado Press Association conference.

Hernandez said the festival’s accessibility manager is in Colorado assessing venues as Sundance prepares for its move to Boulder in January.

Hernandez also said Sundance is working in Boulder to add ramps at theaters that lacked them.

The comments came after Jennifer, a representative of Colorado-based AfterSight, asked Hernandez whether Sundance had considered audio description for films shown in Boulder so blind and low-vision audiences could participate.

Hernandez said Sundance has dedicated accessibility leadership focused on making the festival accessible to people who may need different forms of assistance. He said Laura Benge, Sundance Institute’s manager of accessibility, was in Colorado conducting assessments and working in the community ahead of the festival’s first year in Boulder.

Sundance’s website says its accessibility team includes a year-round accessibility manager, seasonal staff, festival volunteers and outside service providers as needed. The institute says it assesses the accessibility of its in-person and online venues on an ongoing basis in partnership with the disability community.

Current Sundance services include audio description when available, American Sign Language interpretation and CART transcription upon reasonable request, and at least one open-captioned in-person screening per title.

The accessibility work also touches spaces Boulder students use throughout the year.

Four University of Colorado Boulder venues are part of Sundance’s 2027 footprint: Macky Auditorium, Roe Green Theatre, Muenzinger Auditorium and Old Main. Boulder High School and Casey Middle School are also among the festival’s venues.

Some accessibility improvements at the CU Boulder venues were announced before Hernandez’s Aug. 27 remarks.

CU Boulder said in April that Macky Auditorium would receive a ramp providing access to the stage, wheelchair-accessible seating in the front with companion seating and additional accessible seating in the balcony. Roe Green Theatre is also receiving a stage-access ramp.

Those projects are part of broader Sundance-linked renovations at Macky, Roe Green and Muenzinger that include sound and projection upgrades. CU Boulder has said the improvements are intended to benefit students and other campus users beyond the festival.

Hernandez said Sundance has tried to set a high accessibility standard in selecting venues while also advocating for improvements with the university, venue operators and others in Boulder.

He did not describe the work as finished.

Sundance knows it will need to keep improving, Hernandez said, and the first Boulder festival will establish a foundation for later years.

The 2027 Sundance Film Festival will run Jan. 21-31 in Boulder, its first edition in Colorado.