Joel Chapman (he/him) is a New York City-based disability advocate. He is the founder of Transit Access, a community dedicated to making transit navigable for disabled people. In addition to hosting meetups for disabled people to tackle unaddressed needs in riding public transit, transitaccess.org is also a web app centering the accessibility of the NYC subway. It shows exact locations of elevators and their real-time status on an interactive map, custom accessibility notes designed to ease the anxiety of traveling while disabled, and is a hub for anyone trying to follow the myriad changes the MTA is making in their accessibility between now and 2055, when the system will be 95% accessible (it is currently 26%). As the organization grows, Transit Access will expand to other cities.

Ben McCarthy is an artist who learned to program in order to bring 3D models to life and visualize data in creative ways. Think of the subway as a massive kinetic sculpture, but until now, you’ve only been able to experience the system one car at a time, and often in the isolated darkness of a tunnel. My3DTrains is a subway centric transit app that allows New Yorkers to experience the full scale and complexity of the subway system while providing them with accurate routes and trip times. Stand clear of the closing doors, and come along for a breakdown of how to build a 3D transit app!