Comfortably enjoying winter can be a challenge in Indiana, especially for Hoosiers with disabilities. So, we decided to provide a guide to warm, indoor attractions and easy outside events designed with accessibility in mind. Explore the list below for fun things to do and places to go over the next few chilly months.
The Indianapolis Home Show: A Hoosier staple for over a hundred years, this event always makes for wonderful indoor fun amid the winter weather. It is easily accessible as well, as the Indiana State Fairgrounds features ADA-compliant parking, accessible entrances and restrooms, and complimentary wheelchairs.
The centerpiece feature of the 2026 Home Show is more accessible than past centerpieces. While many previous features were multi-level homes, this upcoming one allows visitors to move across smooth trails, ramps and bridges toward three lakeside living spaces, including a cabin, destination trailer and decorated yurt. At the center of it all is Hoosier Lake, a 2,500-square-foot water feature holding more than 20,000 gallons of water. It’s surrounded by natural stone and beautiful trees, making for a great outdoors adventure you can enjoy from the warm indoors.
For more information about the Indianapolis Home Show (January 16-25), visit indianapolishomeshow.com.
Christmas at the Zoo: Fully ADA-accessible, the Indianapolis Zoo is a great place to go this holiday season and through the new year. For its annual holiday celebration happening now through January 4, it’s currently decked out as a winter wonderland where guests can “sip hot cocoa and move through twinkling lights as they visit scampering red pandas, playful penguins, whiskered walruses and the graceful arctic fox.”
In addition to its longtime accessible features, the Zoo is now certified as a Sensory Inclusive institution by KultureCity, which provides visitors with sensory bags, weighted lap pads and information about sensory-friendly areas on the Zoo’s Accessibility Map.
The Harlem Globetrotters at Gainbridge Fieldhouse: As part of its 100 Year Tour, this legendary exhibition basketball team is playing two games against longtime rivals, the Washington Generals. The players will be performing their signature slam dunks and impossibly long shots, as well as interacting with fans and creating comedy on the court.
Gainbridge Fieldhouse has a wide variety of accessible features, from Braille signage, assisted listening devices and accessible stadium seating to sensory bags containing noise-canceling headphones, strobe reduction sunglasses, fidget toys and other tools to lessen sensory overload. Damar Services Inc. installed a sensory wall in the Main Concourse to help kids with autism “engage the senses and calm the nerves.” Repeatedly touching surfaces is a common act of “stimming”— or self-soothing — for children with autism. The sensory wall offers this form of relief with its various textures.
The Globetrotters will play at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on January 17 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Find more information here.
The IMAX Theater at the Indiana State Museum: With its six-story screen, this has always been the ultimate theater for hardcore moviegoers. But it has some special cinematic treats in store this winter, including a double feature of the chilling Stephen King adaptations, The Shining and Doctor Sleep, as well as a screening of the wintry romantic drama Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to ring in Valentine’s Day.
In addition to accessible parking in the underground White River State Park garage, the theater has a long row designated for accessible seating. For viewers with hearing impairment, a personalized closed caption system is available for all digital film showings.
For more information about the theater and upcoming screenings, visit this page.
Winter Wonders Stay and Play: This indoor “sensory celebration” enables blind and visually impaired preschoolers and their families to enjoy the wintry wonders of the season in accessible ways. For example, they can explore cool, soft and squishy textures at the Tactile Snow Exploration station. Or they can experience walking in a winter wonderland with tactile trails marked by sounds and movement cues.
The Indiana School for the Blind & Visually Impaired is hosting this event on January 27 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Be sure to register here.
These are just a few events that anyone with disabilities can easily access this winter. The season is cold and difficult enough in Indiana, so we’re fortunate to have activities people can enjoy without barriers or worries.
Indianapolis Home Show 3D rendering image courtesy of Marketplace Events.
Christmas at the Zoo photo courtesy of the Indianapolis Zoo.
Harlem Globetrotters image courtesy of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Damar Sensory Wall photo courtesy of Damar Services Inc.
IMAX Revivals images courtesy of the IMAX Theater at the Indiana State Museum.
Winter Wonders Stay and Play flyer image courtesy of facebook.com/ISBVI.
