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ACCESS NYC

ACCESS NYC
ACCESS NYC provides a mobile-friendly front door for New Yorkers to screen for benefit and program eligibility, learn how to apply, gather required documents, and find local help.

TARGET AUDIENCE
Benefits-seeking residents in NYC, especially those identified as groups who may need additional support such as:

Residents with low digital literacy
Residents with limited technology access, especially those who are mobile dependent
Residents who do not speak fluent English
Residents with limited visual capabilities

PROJECT WEBSITE
nyc.gov/accessnyc

PROJECT PARTNERS
15+ City, State, and Federal Agencies

KEY FEATURES
Eligibility Screening
Check potential eligibility for over 30 benefits in 10 easy steps. Text or email your eligibility results.

Program Guides
Get information for over 40 city, state, and federal benefits and services. Details include: how a program works, how to qualify, what documents are needed, options for how to apply (online, phone, mail, in-person), and how to receive help.

Find Help Nearby
Search for a nearby service center, filter for relevant benefit categories, and get directions.

Languages
ACCESS NYC is translated into English, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (Traditional), French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu. This makes ACCESS NYC the first website in the City to be fully compliant under Local Law 30, which requires documents and services distributed to the public by City agencies be made available in 11 languages.

HOW WE CREATED ACCESS NYC
ACCESS NYC was redesigned by the Service Design Studio and Product Team at the Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity starting in the summer of 2016 through an iterative prototyping process that engaged residents, social workers, case managers, and government agency staff. The new design and core user experience were created in-house, and information about each benefit was standardized, and made available both through ACCESS NYC and the Benefits and Programs API, a dataset that includes benefit, program, and resource information on health and human services available to New York City residents.

ACCESS NYC relaunched in March 2017 with support from our technology development partner, Blue State Digital. We continue to engage New Yorkers, providers, and government agencies in the ongoing improvement and expansion of ACCESS NYC.

TECHNOLOGY POWERING ACCESS NYC
ACCESS NYC and its underlying content are available as open-source code and data. The ACCESS NYC eligibility screener is a single page web application powered by an API built on the Drools Business Rules Management System hosted on Amazon Web Services through the NYC Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. Additional benefit program content is delivered by WordPress, an open-source content management system, and hosted on WP Engine. All benefit program information on ACCESS NYC is publicly available through the Benefits and Programs API on the City of New York’s Open Data portal.

The ACCESS NYC Design System utilizes patterns from the U.S. Web Design System, the Bourbon SASS Tool Set, and a Tailwind.css Utility Framework.

Links

AWARDS & RECOGNITION
ACCESS NYC Receives Award for “Best Application Serving The Public”
Blog Post | Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity | 9.22.2017

READ MORE ABOUT ACCESS NYC
NYC Opportunity and the Public Engagement Unit Partner for Facilitated Benefits Screening and Enrollment
Blog Post | Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity | 4.10.2018

Case Study of ACCESS NYC - Part 1
Blog Post | Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity | 3.8.2018

Case Study of ACCESS NYC - Part 2
Blog Post | Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity | 3.13.2018

Increasing Online Language Accessibility: ACCESS NYC Now in Eleven Languages
Blog Post | Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity | 2.14.2018

Rebuilding ACCESS NYC with Blue State Digital
Article | Torque: A Publication by WPEngine | 2.14.2018

CONTACT US
Contact ACCESS NYC