The Dennos Museum Center Strengthens Accessibility Efforts, Renews Certified Autism Center™ Designation
With its CAC designation, The Dennos Museum Center continues to contribute to Traverse City’s Certified Autism Destination™ (CAD) efforts.
TRAVERSE CITY, MI, UNITED STATES, December 15, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES) proudly announces the Dennos Museum Center’s renewal of its Certified Autism Center™ (CAC) designation. To renew this accreditation, Dennos staff and volunteers completed updated autism and sensory-specific training to ensure preparedness to best welcome and support every visitor, including autistic and sensory-sensitive individuals.
"Renewing our autism certification ensures that all of our visitors have an opportunity to experience the Dennos at its best," notes Craig Hadley, director of the Dennos Museum Center.
After completing IBCCES autism and sensory training, one museum volunteer shared how meaningful the training was for them and how it opened their eyes to new ways of thinking about who might be walking in the front door of the museum and what their unique needs might be. The volunteer also mentioned being more conscious of that on a daily basis, as well as during their volunteer shift, which certainly extends the impact of this training beyond the Dennos Museum Center’s walls.
This year, the center has made several accessibility upgrades to support its vision of being more inclusive. These include updated entry signage (with a new open sign), new visitor-use wheelchairs and portable gallery stools, sensory kits, designated quiet areas, tactile objects in exhibitions, and benches in temporary galleries—made possible by generous donor support. The Dennos Museum Center has also added audio descriptions for its Friends of the Triassic mural, sculpture, and select works in the Inuit Gallery, along with updated single-stall restrooms featuring all-gender signage.
“The Dennos Museum Center continues to lead by example in the arts and culture community,” says Myron Pincomb, IBCCES board chairman. “By renewing its Certified Autism Center™ designation, Dennos reaffirms that accessibility and inclusion are not one-time goals but ongoing commitments to creating welcoming spaces for all visitors.”
IBCCES autism training provides staff with clear, standardized protocols for interacting with guests with autism and other invisible disabilities. This reduces hesitation, guesswork, and the time it takes for staff to decide how to handle a situation, leading to faster and more confident visitor support. Certification fosters a strategic, big-picture impact that transcends quarterly results and fundamentally strengthens the brand by enhancing the organization’s reputation and differentiation and by creating a culture of excellence, all working together to build long-term institutional value.
By completing the CAC process,The Dennos Museum Center continues to play a role in Traverse City’s designation as a Certified Autism Destination™ (CAD), an initiative spearheaded by Traverse City Tourism. The CAD designation means visitors have multiple trained and certified options to choose from when in the area, including entertainment, recreation, and lodging.
For more than two decades, IBCCES has been a leader in providing autism, sensory and neurodiversity training and certification for professionals worldwide, including those in healthcare, education, public safety, travel, and corporate sectors. As the only credentialing board offering these programs, IBCCES provides training from subject matter experts and autistic self-advocates, along with long-term support, continuous learning, onsite reviews, and renewal requirements to ensure continued growth and lasting impact.
To further support inclusivity efforts, The Dennos Museum Center is featured on the IBCCES Accessibility App, which is free to download. This app provides individuals with a variety of disabilities real-time guidance on certified destinations, sensory-friendly spaces, and tailored recommendations. By connecting users to accessible locations worldwide, the app helps ensure seamless, enjoyable experiences for everyone.
IBCCES also provides access to resources such as AccessibilityCertified.com and AutismTravel.com, free online tools for families that list certified locations and professionals. Each organization listed on the site has met IBCCES certification requirements.
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About The Dennos Museum Center
Opened in 1991, the Dennos Museum Center at Northwestern Michigan College is a premier cultural facility in northern Michigan offering a dynamic array of exhibitions and programs in the visual arts, sciences, and performing arts. The Museum includes temporary exhibition and permanent collection galleries, an elegant sculpture court, and a hands-on Discovery Gallery. The permanent collection features regional, national, and international art from the 19th-21st centuries. The Museum's signature collection is Inuit art of the Canadian Arctic, one of the largest and most historically complete collections of these distinctive sculptures and prints in the United States. A significant collection of outdoor sculptures by noted international and Michigan artists surrounds the Museum on the beautiful campus of Northwestern Michigan College. The Museum expanded its original building in 2018, adding new galleries and auditorium spaces with wide support from the community.
About IBCCES
Delivering the global standard for training and certification in the fields of autism, neurodiversity, and accessibility – IBCCES provides a series of certification programs that empower professionals to be industry leaders and improve the outcomes for the individuals they serve. For over two decades, IBCCES has been a global leader, setting the industry standard in autism and cognitive differences training. IBCCES works in over 111 countries and provides training in 8 languages, and its programs have been recognized around the world as the leading benchmark in training and certification.
In addition to individual certification programs, IBCCES partners with cities, destinations, and organizations on initiatives like the Certified Autism Destination™ (CAD) and Autism Certified City™ (ACC), ensuring autistic and sensory-sensitive residents and visitors feel welcomed and
safe. Destinations that achieve the CAD designation have completed a specialized program that ensures a multitude of recreation, hospitality and entertainment organizations have completed an autism and sensory-sensitivity training, certification and IBCCES facilities review process. The ACC designation expands on that program and includes IBCCES training and certification for the public safety, education, healthcare and workplace sectors.
IBCCES also created the Accessibility App, AutismTravel.com, and AccessibilityCertified.com – free resources for individuals with a variety of neurodiversities and disabilities, listing certified locations and connecting individuals to other resources and each other.
Meredith Tekin
IBCCES
+1 904-508-0135
marketing@ibcces.org
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