The Quest to Make Places Accessible Continues

If equality is the ultimate goal, than wstill have a long way to go, but we're certainly on the right track. Everyday I read about how the main stream community is doing what it can to make their products, buildings, and recreational offerings accessible to people with disabilities.

I have talked before about how parks, zoos, and museums are doing what they can to encourage the blind to visit by making their experience more accessible. Well here are two more examples of just that.

For the past 12 years, the Oregon Zoo has been inviting blind and visually impaired students to come to the vet clinic to experience the animals in a way they can't just by visiting the zoo. This year, on Febuary 17th, 14 students got to touch a tiger. The best way for the blind to really experience something is through touch or sound. Now these kids will really know what a tiger feels like. I know for me, the zoo is not much fun since I can't see the animals anymore, but with a program like this, the blind are given a chance to experience animals like their sighted peers do.

Just like zoos, museums can be a borefor someone who can't see the art, but some museums are doing what they can to remedy that problem. At the Burmingham Museum of Art, paintings have been recreated so the blind can experience them. Tactile representations are made so that a blind person can feel what the painting is showing. The program to make recreations started in 1990, and now with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the museum has professional artists make the tactile representations. It is true that the blind can't experience visual media the same way a sighted person can, but that doesn't mean that the visual world has to be unreachable for them. I think that this project is amazing, and if I'm ever in Alabama, I will be sure to visit this museum.

What do you think would make places like zoos and museums most accessible?