Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion

Touch Tours: Bringing a Museum to Life for the Blind

Permalink: https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/AAMers/fsPopup.asp?mode=presInfo&PresentationID=490084

Special measures must be taken to ensure that visitors who are blind or low-vision can enjoy and engage with material. The Houston Museum of Natural Science’s Touch Tours program presents such visitors with tactile-heavy presentations. Hear about the museum’s communication strategies for this community, efforts to improve content accessibility, and methods for acquiring funding and buy-in. Evaluate your own institution’s accessibility, and develop cost-effective resources to make a visit easy and educational for a patron who is blind or low-vision.

Learning Objectives:

• Evaluate your institution from the perspective of a patron who is blind or low-vision.
• Develop personalized, cost-effective resources to improve communication and engagement with such visitors.
• Effectively train staff on your blind and low-vision program, and solicit community partners to help fund future operations.

Presenter(s)

• 

  Matti Hammett

  Youth Education Registrar and Co-Chair of the Committee for Advancing Museum Accessibility
  Houston Museum of Natural Science
• 

  Sahil Patel

  Project Manager, Business Development
  Houston Museum of Natural Science
• 

  Julia Russell

  Program Growth Manager, Co-Chair for the Committee for Advancing Museum Accessibility
  Houston Museum of Natural Science