31Dynamic changes in chromatin accessibility coincide with important aspects of neuronal differentiation, such as 32 fate specification and arealization and confer cell type-specific associations to neurodevelopmental disorders. 33However, studies of the epigenomic landscape of the developing human brain have yet to be performed at single-34 cell resolution. Here, we profiled chromatin accessibility of >75,000 cells from eight distinct areas of developing 35human forebrain using single cell ATAC-seq (scATACseq). We identified thousands of loci that undergo 36 extensive cell type-specific changes in accessibility during corticogenesis. Chromatin state profiling also reveals 37 novel distinctions between neural progenitor cells from different cortical areas not seen in transcriptomic profiles 38 and suggests a role for retinoic acid signaling in cortical arealization. Comparison of the cell type-specific 39 chromatin landscape of cerebral organoids to primary developing cortex found that organoids establish broad 40 cell type-specific enhancer accessibility patterns similar to the developing cortex, but lack many putative 41 regulatory elements identified in homologous primary cell types. Together, our results reveal the important 42 contribution of chromatin state to the emerging patterns of cell type diversity and cell fate specification and 43 provide a blueprint for evaluating the fidelity and robustness of cerebral organoids as a model for cortical 44 development. 45 46Main text 47The diverse cell types of the human cerebral cortex (Fig. 1a) have been mostly classified based on a handful of 48 morphological, anatomical, and physiological features. Recent innovations in single cell genomics, such as single 49 cell mRNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), have enabled massively parallel profiling of thousands of molecular 50 features in every cell, uncovering the remarkable molecular diversity of cell types previously considered 51 homologous, such as excitatory neurons located in different areas of the cerebral cortex 1-6 . However, the 52 developmental mechanisms underlying the emergence of distinct cellular identities are largely unknown, as most 53 cortical neurons are generated at stages that are inaccessible to experimentation 5 . 54 55Over 60 years ago, Conrad Waddington introduced the concept of an epigenomic landscape to account for the 56 emergence of distinct cell fates 7 . In particular, chromatin state defines the functional architecture of the genome 57