The Americans with Disabilities Act
Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in places of public accommodation, for example: "Museum, library, gallery, or other place of public display or collection." (www.ada.gov) It also requires newly constructed or altered places of public accommodation to comply with ADA design standards.
Many cultural institutions comply with the ADA in letter more so than in spirit. Accessibility levels vary from provisions such as wheelchair ramps, accessible restrooms and allowing service animals to efforts to encourage people with a range of different abilities to come to our museums, our libraries, our cultural heritage institutions. The difference is between retroactively making the minimum changes possible to be compliant with the law, and proactively designing spaces, exhibits, and services to meet people where they learn, perceive and relate to the world, on what can be a very broad spectrum.
Different Ability Levels, Different Needs
People with differing levels of ability are no more easily categorized than anyone else. As a result, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and visitor-centered programming is crucial for a successful, engaging experience. People may be blind or visually impaired, deaf or hard of hearing, may be on the autism spectrum, may have dementia, may be in a wheelchair or need a cane, may have any combination of these. It is important for museums, libraries and other areas of public collections to reach out to these populations, with measures that include touchable exhibits, assistive listening devices, places to calm down, and training of staff, including security staff, in different behavior shown by these populations. Some disabled people require a companion with them; what is your institution's policy regarding admission fees for the companion? It is important to develop solutions for groups, who may be more comfortable in non-judgmental environments, as well as for those who would rather explore with the general population.
Museums evolved and have an identity as a place to go and see things. Their mission is to preserve items so they may be seen by future generations. Hetherington describes them as a "space of seeing and conservation." (Hetherington, 444). First of all, this places a primacy on sight as the means by which museum patrons learn, and discuss, and interact. This primacy of vision makes the relationship between museums and visually impaired people especially complicated. Many blind and low-vision people experience and perceive the world through touch. This is at odds with a museum's mission to conserve, to protect items which may be damaged by the salt, sweat and oil that our hands leave on them, or items that may be sharp or heavy and may injure a person touching them.
However our seeing has changed over the years, the patron in a museum has always been assumed to be sighted (Hetherington, 448).
We as museum professionals have an obligation to try to remove barriers to information for all our patrons. This demands that we question how our information is presented. Barriers may take the form of case glare: does reflected light off a glass display case prevent a person in a wheelchair from seeing the artifact inside? Wall-mounted plaques are often reflective, in small type, and placed at a height where a standing adult can read them, making a barrier for those with low vision and people in wheelchairs, and children. (Waite, 76.) People with low hearing may find noisy galleries a difficult space in which to pay attention to the art in front of them, as might people with disorders on the autism spectrum, which can make them very sensitive to noise and light.
Local Institutions
I wish to discuss three local institutions who have accessibility programs in place, and explore what we in the art curatorial world can learn from organizations other than art museums. I will discuss accessibility offerings at the Museum of Fine Arts, the Wheelock Family Theatre, and the Museum of Science. Included here will be a look at how accessibility is written into the mission statements of these organizations.
Museum of Fine Arts
The mission statement of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) "celebrates diverse cultures and welcomes new and broader constituencies," and "accommodates a wide range of experiences and learning styles." (www.mfa.org) The museum website has an Accessibility tab located on the home page, which brings up a list of services offered, starting with parking and entrances.
The museum has manual wheelchairs and Rollators (walkers with wheels, a padded seat and a back) that may be borrowed. Personal care attendants are admitted to the museum free of charge. Lightweight portable stools are available to be brought into most galleries for seating beyond the permanent benches in the galleries.
The museum offers Assistive Listening Devices (ALDs) for gallery tours and talks in the visitor center, and has a separate system for programs in the auditoriums. Headsets and neck loops are available, as are large font maps.
The MFA Guide offers audio and video commentary on collections and focused tours of special exhibitions.
For blind or low-vision patrons, the MFA Guide includes an audio descriptive tour, and the patron may request a unit with voice-over or screen-reading feature, turned on and off by a tactile button on the "5" key. A service called "Beyond the Screen" is a self-contained tour and bag with materials for a blind or low vision patron and a companion, with a focus on the Asian collection, available free of charge.
Tactile art cards are available at the Family Art Cart on weekends These are cards focused on one object with a raised line graphic, Braille, and large print.
For deaf or low hearing patrons, the museum offers headphones and neckloops (compatible with hearing aids). Every MFA Guide stop includes the option of onscreen text transcripts. There is an ASL version of MFA highlights, and FM assistive listening devices with headphones or neckloops.
Where the MFA really shines is in specific art access programs. Access to Art is a program of interactive tours designed for groups with disabilities: physical, cognitive, people with dementia, people undergoing medical treatment, and many more. This is an example where some people will prefer a group environment, and others may prefer an individual tour, which can be scheduled with advance notice.
Artful Adventures targets children and teens with disabilities, and includes a program called Beyond the Spectrum for children with autism or on the autism spectrum, which is a tour combined with an art making activity.
Feeling For Form is a program designed for visitors of all ages who are blind or low vision. It offers tours of collections through tactile exploration of selected sculpture and furniture. For items that cannot be touched, there is verbal description and tactile graphics. This program is led by trained museum volunteers and access staff in all areas of the museum. This program works with groups, such as the Perkins School for the Blind, who come to the museum monthly.
All touch tours at the MFA require the participants to wear gloves. It is a delicate balance: on the one hand, this lessens the intimacy of the touch experience. On the other, it keeps objects clean and means the participants can touch more objects.
A Hand's Reach to Art is a program for the deaf and low hearing. Throughout the year, selected gallery tours, performances and demonstrations are interpreted in American Sign Language. Each second Wednesday of the month, there is a tour presented in ASL.
Wheelock Family Theatre
The mission statement of the Wheelock Family Theatre states, "We are devoted to the ideal of complete access and reject the notion that the arts should be available only to audiences of privilege… Our access provisions to people with disabilities reflect an unwavering commitment to inclusive, community-based theater." (www.wheelockfamilytheatre.org)
The entire facility is wheelchair accessible. All performances are open captioned, a system in which dialogue is displayed on an LED screen to the side of the stage. Selected performances are ASL-interpreted. Selected performances are audio-described for the visually impaired, with a live pre-show introduction and live audio description.
Programs are available in Braille and large format, and the theater offers sound enhancement devices and infrared assistive listening devices.
The theater also partners with community organizations to make reduced-price or free tickets available to families who otherwise would not be able to afford to go to the theater, and offers a Buy One Get One with a Massachusetts library card. This recognition of financial barriers as another information barrier has a parallel in the mission statement of the Museum of Science.
Museum of Science
The mission statement of the Museum of Science states, "Since 1993, accessibility for people with disabilities has dramatically improved in the Museum. All permanent additions to the Museum are pre-examined against accessibility criteria." (www.mos.org) This statement is actually found in the History section of the museum website. Under a link to Accessibility, the Museum's vision is referred to: "…everyone can participate equally in the excitement of science and technology learning." (www.mos.org) Barriers may be financial, cultural, linguistic, educational, or barriers of ability; "all can inhibit expression." (www.mos.org)
The Museum offers sighted guide tours for blind or low vision patrons, and ASL-interpreted tours for deaf or low hearing. These are available with two weeks' notice. Many of the museum's exhibits are hands-on by nature. The Museum is less confined by "Look, don't touch" than an art museum.
Special facilities in the museum include the Omni Theater and the Planetarium. Both are equipped with captioning systems and systems for amplifying narration. The Omni Theater offers descriptive narration, foreign language translations, and scripts for selected shows. The Planetarium offers scripts for shows as well as Braille constellation maps and tactile pictures.
The Museum offers a map and guide in several languages, and has manual wheelchairs, strollers, and electric scooters which patrons may borrow for free.
But…
These are three of the leading cultural institutions in Boston in terms of accessibility. However, there is much to be done in terms of reaching out to people with disabilities rather than retrofitting our buildings, exhibits and performances to be more accessible. Questions to ask your organization include: how will we solicit feedback from users? How might we consult some of these groups as we design our exhibits and performances? What items in our collections are safe to touch, and do we allow sighted patrons to touch them also? This might enhance the museum experience for sighted people as well. There is a conflict between the needs of conservation and the needs of access. Technology is helping us overcome many of these barriers, but we need to start building accessibility into our exhibits from the ground up and learning from the organizations around us and the communities we seek to serve.
Further ideas include touch tours of a stage before a performance to orient blind or low vision patrons to the stage area, and performances designated for autistic people and their families, such as the production of Elf sponsored by the Theater Development Fund. This was a challenge to theatergoers and to actors, who didn't know what to expect, and sure enough, during the opening moments, a child ran into the aisle and threw an object onto the stage, which one of the actors caught. The object was a "fidget", which had been handed out to keep them calm. Special provisions in this performance included cards showing the characters, earplugs for those sensitive to sound, a "quiet room" in case anyone needed to calm down. The sound and lighting were softened and the house lights were not turned completely off. (Mandell, 67.)
Best practices gleaned from this include the designated performance, allowing a good deal of time to plan, and consulting experts in autism as to whether the production itself is appropriate for that audience. (Mandell, 67.)
It also raises the "separate but equal" question, a question which comes up regularly in designing accessibility initiatives. Many of the theatergoers at this performance enjoyed being in an accepting, non-judgmental environment, rather than being curiosities or singled out.
People learn and absorb information in a vast array of ways, and our institutions have historically been designed for those who can see, hear and walk without assistance. We are only beginning to understand the range of perception, the how in how people learn. But there is no substitute for the experience of going to a museum, or a play, and we want to make sure all of our patrons can participate equally.
Questions to Ask:
- Do we as curatorial staff consult our accessibility team when designing and implementing exhibits?
- Is accessibility written into our mission or vision statement?
- If we allow tactile exploration of museum objects for blind or low-vision patrons, do we also allow this activity for sighted patrons? This may enhance their museum experience as well.
- Do we have a policy on gloves for tactile learning? They create a barrier to touch, but allow people to touch many more objects.
- Do we offer instruction on touching art objects?
- What is our policy on care partners?
- It is our mission to provide interpretation of our artworks. Will a blind person have access to this interpretation? A deaf person? Someone in a wheelchair? Someone with dementia? How do people of varying abilities learn and absorb information, and how can we provide it to them?
- Is our security staff trained in recognizing the different behaviors that may be displayed? Do they know what is and is not a threat and how to respond?
- How do we work with our accessibility staff? What questions can we ask? How can we reach out?
Resources
References
Graham, Helen. Museums for Us: Exploring Museums with People with Intellectual Disabilities. Smithsonian Institution, c 2011.
Hetherington, K. (2003) Accountability and Disposal: Visual Impairment and the Museum. Museum & Society, 1(2), 104-115.
Hetherington, K. (2000) Museums and the visually impaired: the spatial politics of access. Sociological Review, 48(3), 444-463.
Kusayama, Kozue. (2005) Access to museums for visually challenged people in Japan.
Mandell, J. (2013) The Circle of Inclusion. American Theatre, 30(5), 66-69.
Udo, J. (2010) Enhancing the entertainment experience of blind and low-vision theatregoers through touch tours. Disability & Society, 25(2), 231-240.
Waite, T., Kirkley, J., Pendleton, R., and Turner, L. MUSEpad: Supporting Information Accessibility through Mobile Location-Based Technology. Techtrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 49(3), 76-82.
www.mfa.org
www.mos.org
www.wheelockfamilytheatre.org
