Nashville is building the most accessible city in the world. Your business is part of that.
Access Music City is how Nashville's restaurants, venues, hotels, and attractions tell their guests, honestly and publicly, what their space is like to visit. Not a certification. Not a grade. A clear, trustworthy description that helps every guest decide where to go.
You're Welcome.
One in four adults in the U.S. lives with a disability.
That's 1.7 million Tennesseans and roughly 61 million Americans, plus the family members, friends, and companions who travel with them. When a guest with a disability can't find reliable information about your space, they often don't come. When they can, they frequently bring others.
The numbers matter, but they aren't the point. The point is that people with disabilities are already part of Nashville's economy, culture, and life, and they deserve the same straightforward information every other guest gets when deciding where to spend an evening.
Sources: CDC (2023); American Institutes for Research, Return on Disability; Tennessee Disability Coalition (2024).
Access Music City is a program of Empower Tennessee.
Empower Tennessee is Middle Tennessee's Center for Independent Living, a federally funded, consumer-controlled, cross-disability nonprofit led by and for people with disabilities. We've been serving stakeholders across Middle Tennessee since 1993.
We run Access Music City in partnership with BluePath, our accessibility assessment platform.
The timeline is real.
In 2034, Nashville hosts the Special Olympics USA Games. Thousands of athletes, families, and visitors will arrive expecting a city that welcomes them. The accessibility infrastructure they'll rely on is the infrastructure Nashville businesses are building now.
While 2034 sounds a far way off, it isn't. We'd rather invite you to get started now than watch you scramble to catch up later.
Verified means honest. It doesn't mean perfect.
This is the part worth reading carefully, because it's the part some businesses get wrong about us.
Verified is not a grade. It's a description. When your business becomes Verified, a trained Access Music City assessor goes through your space, measures and documents what's there, and publishes an accurate listing on the BluePath directory. That listing tells guests what your entry is like, what your restrooms are like, what your seating is like, what your lighting and sound environment is like, and what your staff can help with.
If your building has ten steps at the front door, the listing says so. If your restroom won't fit a wheelchair, the listing says so. If your space is loud, the listing says so. None of that disqualifies you. A Nashville business with ten steps at the entrance is fully Verified when its listing honestly says "ten steps at the entrance." That's the whole point of the program.
Why it works this way: people with disabilities aren't looking for businesses that are perfect. They're looking for businesses that are honest and meet their needs. A guest who uses a wheelchair and sees "ten steps at the entrance" on a listing hasn't been rejected, they've been respected enough to evaluate the situation and to make their own choice. Some will skip it. Some will come anyway, bringing a friend who can help. Some will come on a day they're using forearm crutches instead. What they won't do is arrive unprepared and unhappy or avoid your business entirely because they couldn't find out.
The businesses that show up for this work with that spirit, willing to be seen clearly and to describe themselves honestly, are the ones building a welcoming and inclusive Nashville.
Start where it fits.
Tier 1: Basic listing
Your accessibility information, published where guests are looking.
You answer a short questionnaire about your space; our team builds your listing on the BluePath directory and makes it findable to anyone deciding where to go. $150 annually.
A good starting point for businesses that want to be in the directory before scheduling a full on-site assessment.
Tier 2: Verified
Your space, professionally assessed.
Tier 1 is your good-faith description of your space. Verified goes further: a trained assessor surveys and documents your space thoroughly, including the details most people aren't trained to notice. Our team then builds your full Verified listing on BluePath, so guests know the information is reliable. You receive a "You're Welcome" window cling and a digital badge for your website, social media, and marketing. $300 annually, in addition to your Tier 1 listing ($450 total).
This is where the program's real work happens: honest, verified listings that guests can trust.
Tier 3: ADA Consultation
Expert help, tailored to your space.
Custom work with Empower Tennessee staff: event planning, staff training, renovation guidance, or strategic accessibility advice. $150/hour, with a two-hour minimum.
This collaboration is for businesses ready to go deeper or planning a specific project where expert input saves time and money.
Get a whole district Verified together.
A Block Party is a coordinated assessment day. A team of trained Access Music City volunteers, often including a corporate volunteer group, assesses multiple businesses in a single district over a single day. A block of storefronts. A row of restaurants. A neighborhood. A whole entertainment district.
It's efficient for businesses (one scheduled day, done together), meaningful for volunteers, and visible to the public: a clear, coordinated signal that a neighborhood is showing up for this work together.
Open your doors to the full disability community.
Access Music City Evenings are gatherings at Nashville venues: museums, performance spaces, galleries, restaurants. Each one is designed from the start to welcome guests with disabilities. Some are free and hosted by Empower Tennessee. Some are partner events where a Nashville venue shares a ticketed evening with our stakeholder community, often with a block of free or reduced-price tickets.
Hosting an AMC Evening is one of the clearest public signals a business can send. It says: this is a space where the full disability community is welcomed, and the welcome was designed in, not added on.
What Nashville businesses are saying.
The Frist Art Museum
[ Testimonial from a current AMC partner, pending. Note: The Frist Art Museum hosts AMC Evenings; testimonial language should reflect that role unless/until Verified status is confirmed. ]
5 Points Pizza
[ Testimonial from 5 Points Pizza, pending. ]
Verified Business
[ Additional Verified-business testimonial(s), pending. ]
Frequently Asked Questions
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Then your listing will describe your space accurately, and guests who need different access features will know that before they arrive. That's not a failure of the program. That's the program working. You are still welcome to be Verified. Many historic buildings, upstairs venues, and older spaces across Nashville are exactly the businesses we most want to join us, because honest information about those spaces is what guests are often missing.
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Most assessments take two to three hours on-site. Scheduling is flexible and works around your hours of operation.
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Verified is $300 annually, in addition to the Tier 1 Basic listing. Tier 1 is $150 annually, making Verified a total of $450 per year.
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Trained Access Music City assessors: volunteers who have completed BluePath training. Many of our assessors are themselves people with disabilities, bringing lived experience to the work alongside the standardized assessment tool.
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Your assessment results are published on the BluePath public directory so guests can find your business and know what to expect. You receive a full copy of the results directly, and you can use the Verified badge in your own marketing.
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Tier 3 ADA Consultation is available for event planning, staff training, renovation guidance, and strategic accessibility work at $150/hour, with a two-hour minimum.
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Email amc@empowertn.org. We'll set up a conversation about which tier fits your business, your space, and your timeline.
Let's talk.
This program works because Nashville businesses are willing to be honest about their spaces and invite their guests in clearly. If that's work you want to be part of, we'd love to hear from you.
Access Music City | A program of Empower Tennessee | amc@empowertn.org