Lisa Carling

Lisa Carling joined TDF Accessibility Programs in 1983 and has been the department's director since the mid-'90s. She helps design and implement services that make theatre performances accessible to people with disabilities on Broadway, Off Broadway and nationwide. Ms. Carling runs a department that provides autism-friendly, open captioned, sign language-interpreted and audio described performances, as well as seating for theatregoers with mobility disabilities. She also oversees the TDF Veterans Theatregoing Program to ensure NYC's vets have the accessibility accommodations they need when attending shows.


Ms. Carling served on The Shubert Organization's Audience Services Advisory Committee for the implementation of GalaPro, an app that provides on-demand closed captioning and audio description; and currently serves on Bridge Multimedia's Advisory Group to review broadcast audio description for programming K-12. As a speaker, she has shared her experience in the accessibility field on theatre industry panels, at arts and disability conferences, BroadwayCon and the first-ever Broadway Accessibility Summit. In her previous career, Lisa performed with Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, CT, and Classic Stage Company in New York, and also did TV and film.