Philip Dallmann is an advocate for accessibility and inclusion, audience services consultant, playwright, and now podcast host.
Born and raised in Burlington, NJ Phil was active in the community from a young age founding the first local fundraisers for both the American Cancer Society and Alex's Lemonade Stand while still in high school. After graduating Phil went on to attend George Mason University, studying English and Playwriting. While attending George Mason Phil taught for Acting For Young People both as an after-school acting teacher and as head teacher in their 5 week summer program covering ages 4 and up including several children with developmental disabilities.
After spending a year living in DC post graduation Phil moved back to Burlington and began work in a high school autism classroom. Not even knowing the definition of autism before being hired it took no time at all for him to fall in love with working with this community and realize the need to combine this new passion with his long time love of the arts.
In the Fall of 2012 Phil moved to NYC to pursue this new passion for accessibility and enrolled in Penn State World Campus's Graduate Autism program. After a year in the city, in October of 2013, Phil was hired to coordinate the Theatre Development Fund's Autism Theatre Initiative before taking over as Manager of TDF Accessibility Programs in June 2015. Since beginning work at TDF Phil has been part of the team responsible for countless autism-friendly Broadway performances while also consulting nationally with institutions such as Hartford Stage, The Flynn Center, Lifeline Theatre, Segerstrom Center For The Arts, Big Apple Circus and more. At TDF Phil worked hands on with all open captioned performances and has led an initiative to increase the amount of audio description that is available to the vision loss community. Phil was also a part of the team, along with The Broadway League, who conceived and launched TheatreAccess.NYC
Phil has twice presented to the Museum Access Consortium, most recently at the Museum of Modern Art on the creation of Quiet & Activity areas for autism-friendly programming. In the summer of 2015 Phil presented with TDF and Hartford Stage at The Kennedy Center LEAD Conference on Volunteer Recruitment and Training for Autism/Sensory Friendly Performances and participated in a panel discussion on the merits of Autism-Friendly vs Sensory Friendly vs Relaxed performances with Roger Ideishi of Imagination Stage and Kirsty Hoyle of Include Arts (UK).
Since leaving TDF in December 2017 Phil has taken on several new ventures. In March 2018 Phil joined Kaiser's Room, a non-profit company in NYC, as their new Executive Director. Kaiser's Room provides theatre and dance classes for individuals with cognitive/developmental disabilities with a focus on imagination and connection. In April 2018 Phil launched The Access Champions Podcast, which highlights work being done in the fields of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion.
Phil continues to consult and speak around the country in the worlds of audience services, accessibility, inclusion, and organizational buy-in.
Born and raised in Burlington, NJ Phil was active in the community from a young age founding the first local fundraisers for both the American Cancer Society and Alex's Lemonade Stand while still in high school. After graduating Phil went on to attend George Mason University, studying English and Playwriting. While attending George Mason Phil taught for Acting For Young People both as an after-school acting teacher and as head teacher in their 5 week summer program covering ages 4 and up including several children with developmental disabilities.
After spending a year living in DC post graduation Phil moved back to Burlington and began work in a high school autism classroom. Not even knowing the definition of autism before being hired it took no time at all for him to fall in love with working with this community and realize the need to combine this new passion with his long time love of the arts.
In the Fall of 2012 Phil moved to NYC to pursue this new passion for accessibility and enrolled in Penn State World Campus's Graduate Autism program. After a year in the city, in October of 2013, Phil was hired to coordinate the Theatre Development Fund's Autism Theatre Initiative before taking over as Manager of TDF Accessibility Programs in June 2015. Since beginning work at TDF Phil has been part of the team responsible for countless autism-friendly Broadway performances while also consulting nationally with institutions such as Hartford Stage, The Flynn Center, Lifeline Theatre, Segerstrom Center For The Arts, Big Apple Circus and more. At TDF Phil worked hands on with all open captioned performances and has led an initiative to increase the amount of audio description that is available to the vision loss community. Phil was also a part of the team, along with The Broadway League, who conceived and launched TheatreAccess.NYC
Phil has twice presented to the Museum Access Consortium, most recently at the Museum of Modern Art on the creation of Quiet & Activity areas for autism-friendly programming. In the summer of 2015 Phil presented with TDF and Hartford Stage at The Kennedy Center LEAD Conference on Volunteer Recruitment and Training for Autism/Sensory Friendly Performances and participated in a panel discussion on the merits of Autism-Friendly vs Sensory Friendly vs Relaxed performances with Roger Ideishi of Imagination Stage and Kirsty Hoyle of Include Arts (UK).
Since leaving TDF in December 2017 Phil has taken on several new ventures. In March 2018 Phil joined Kaiser's Room, a non-profit company in NYC, as their new Executive Director. Kaiser's Room provides theatre and dance classes for individuals with cognitive/developmental disabilities with a focus on imagination and connection. In April 2018 Phil launched The Access Champions Podcast, which highlights work being done in the fields of accessibility, diversity, and inclusion.
Phil continues to consult and speak around the country in the worlds of audience services, accessibility, inclusion, and organizational buy-in.
