About
ACCESS NYC is a mobile-friendly website for New Yorkers to check their eligibility for over 40 benefits and learn how to apply.
What is ACCESS NYC?
ACCESS NYC is a website for New Yorkers who need information about benefits and programs.
- Eligibility Screening – Check potential eligibility for over 40 benefits in 10 easy steps. Text or email your eligibility results.
- Program Guides – Get information for over 80 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.
ACCESS NYC is human-translated and fully compliant under Local Law 30, which requires documents and services distributed to the public by City agencies be made available in 11 languages (Arabic, Bengali, Chinese (traditional), French, Haitian Creole, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Urdu).
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 (NYC 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.
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.
The technology powering ACCESS NYC
- Public program information is managed and updated in partnership with government agencies using Content Workflow, an editorial workflow and content management tool.
The ACCESS NYC website is powered by WordPress, an open-source content management system. The website also uses a variety of WordPress plugins for customization, and is hosted on WP Engine.
The ACCESS NYC screener is a single page web application powered by an API built on the Drools Business Rules Management System. The API is hosted on Amazon Web Services through the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation.
All benefit program information and screener calculations used on ACCESS NYC are publicly available through the NYC Benefits Platform resources below.
ACCESS NYC’s underlying code is open source and available through the ACCESS NYC GitHub repository.
The front-end components and styles used on ACCESS NYC can be found in the NYC Opportunity Standard library, which borrows from the U.S. Web Design System, the Bourbon SASS Tool Set, and Tailwind.css Utility Framework.
Links
The NYC Benefits Platform
We support organizations that make it easier for NYC residents to discover and be aware of multiple benefits they may be eligible for through open resources including:
- NYC Benefits and Programs Dataset: plain language, standardized public info for 80+ programs featured on ACCESS NYC and other websites our office maintains.
- NYC Benefits Screening API: Machine-readable calculations and criteria for benefits screening that power the ACCESS NYC screening questionnaire. We hope this can aid in accelerating the creation of new screening tools, and provide opportunities to screen households based on existing information.
- Video: Public Benefits Awareness & Screening: An Intro to the NYC Benefits Platform (from NYC Open Data Week 2024)
Awards & Recognition
- “2025 National Government Experience Award for Bridging Digital Tools with Human Support” | 09.25.2025
- “2020 Government Experience Award" | 09.30.2020
- “City on a Cloud Innovation Challenge” Winner | 12.11.2019
- “Best Application Serving The Public” | 9.22.2017
Learn more about ACCESS NYC
- Building On What Works: The NYC Benefits Platform NYC Opportunity | July 2025
- New York City Demystifies Social Service Benefits Screening GovTech | April 2019
- NYC Opportunity and the Public Engagement Unit Partner for Facilitated Benefits Screening and Enrollment NYC Opportunity | April 2018
- Increasing Online Language Accessibility: ACCESS NYC Now in Eleven Languages NYC Opportunity | March 2018
- Case Study of ACCESS NYC – Part 1 NYC Opportunity | March 2018
- Case Study of ACCESS NYC – Part 2 NYC Opportunity | March 2018
Accessibility
The City of New York is committed to ensuring that all New Yorkers can access all of our digital content. To reach that goal, we passed Local Law 26 of 2016, requiring City agencies to make their websites accessible. Our digital content is partially conformant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 Level AA standard with the exceptions set forth at 28 CFR § 35.201.
The Digital Accessibility Coordinator, based at the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, also helps work towards these goals. The Coordinator audits websites and guides NYC agencies on how to make their digital content accessible. They run training and events for City employees and the public to learn more about accessibility. The Digital Accessibility Coordinator also leads the effort to write the reports that Local Law 26 requires.
For resources to learn about and improve accessibility, you can:
- Download guides on digital accessibility
- Download the Digital Accessibility Reports
- Contact the Digital Accessibility Coordinator
This statement was last updated on 12/22/2025.