Disabled teenagers from York who want to get to know their city and learn more about its heritage are being sought for a community project.

The Explore York! project, run by the York Archaeological Trust and City of York Council, is inviting young people aged 14 to 16 to visit and evaluate historical attractions and make their views known through a new website.

The project has been designed specifically for disabled young people.

Using social media, the group will record their observations on accessibility, overall enjoyment and educational aspects of the attractions, which will then help in future development of the sites.

The young volunteers will visit York Archaeological Trust’s Hungate excavations, the Jorvik Viking Centre, Barley Hall, Micklegate Bar Museum and the Museum Gardens.

They will be asked to analyse each site through the eyes of a tourist and give advice on how they would help other people enjoy the sites.

The project was piloted at York High School and a one-off session will also be held at Applefields School at the beginning of October.

Hollie Byrnes, 16, who attended the pilot programme and visited Jorvik, DIG on St Saviourgate, Hungate excavation site and Museum Gardens, said: “I thought that the atmosphere was happy and upbeat and this made me feel welcome.

“I learnt about how the Vikings live and the different jobs that they did.”

Andrew Jones, project leader, said: “This is notoriously a difficult age range to engage with in heritage projects and so we jumped at the chance of taking a lead on the initiative.

“Feedback from teenagers is crucial to making York’s heritage sites accessible and appealing to this hard to reach audience.

“The trust has a rolling evaluation programme yet respondents are typically over 18 years old.”