VANTAGE POINT

“I believe it is the combination of physical accommodation and mutual respect that is the important factor in making museums accessible. It is not enough to adhere to codes and requirements of door widths or TT (telephone texts for hearing impaired people). These architectural changes and improvements plus adaptive devices facilitate movement in a building and make the programs accessible to a wide audience, but more the physical site must be changed. Our attitudes must be changed so that accommodation does not come only to equal inconvenience. Just because there’s a ramp to the door, or a grab bar in the lavatory doesn't mean that the problems of accessibility have been solved. From museum guards to tour guides, curators to administrators, all of the public must be treated with dignity, courtesy, and human understanding. Our attitude must change to view the public just as that: a group of diverse people with various needs, concerns, abilities, and limitations”

-Dianne Pilgrim in The Accessible Museum