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NARRATOR: Providing accessible informal STEM learning.
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CHARLOTTE MARTIN: I'm Charlotte Martin.
I'm the Director of Access Initiatives
at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum in New York City.
And one of my big takeaways working in access for a number
of years now is not to assume what an individual can
or cannot do, but rather knowing the potential barriers
presented by your space or your program or the challenge
you're working on, trying to mitigate those as best you can
in advance, and then being prepared to offer clear options
and information about those options.
So having text labels, having large print available,
so having large print labels that people can borrow,
also having that content available online through an accessible
web page that you can access through a QR code.
By building those resources into the exhibition,
you can still have that shared experience with the people
that you came with even if some are disabled
or not disabled or have different preferences for how
they get that information.
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KATY MENNE: Hi.
My name is Katy Menne.
I'm the Curator of Education at the North Carolina Maritime
Museum at Southport.
We strive every day, all day, through all platforms
and on site to make sure that we are
accessible for all people, all ages, all abilities.
So if it's reading the exhibits and going through
at your own pace, if it's scanning a QR
code for a semi-guided audio tour, including American Sign Language,
or if it's utilizing our Braille
maps to go throughout the building, no matter what,
we hope that you have an opportunity
to learn, and do, and be the best version of yourself.
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ISAAC BEAVERS: I'm Isaac Beavers.
I'm with the Alabama Institute for Deaf and Blind
in Huntsville.
In our informal STEM learning programs,
we serve primarily blind and visually impaired students.
We have over the last few years incorporated
deaf and hard-of-hearing students.
So one of the things we do is make sure
that on our registrations, we ask what consumers might need,
attendees might need.
When we're working with blind and visually impaired,
we want to make sure that we have
Braille, tactile representations and models.
We want to make sure that we have audio access.
And when we're working with our deaf,
we always make sure we have American Sign Language interpreters
and also we have a few FM devices along the way.
RYAN SAGLIO: My name is Ryan Saglio.
I am the Supported Employment Program Manager
at a human services nonprofit in Massachusetts
called Attleboro Enterprises.
I work exclusively with individuals with disabilities
and mental illness who are looking to find employment
opportunities out in their community,
but I have also in the past done accessibility and inclusion
work for some of the local museums here in New England.
I think that good accessibility work is basic accessibility
work, things like having bathrooms that are accessible,
benches that are accessible, wide walking paths.
A story that I often tell of accessibility gone wrong
is I recently visited a museum that I was very excited to see.
I'd been waiting two years to get there.
I do have my own physical disabilities
and physical limitations, so I don't use mobility aids,
but I do need to sit down quite often.
And we were in the museum, and we were walking around,
and after a couple of minutes, I really needed to sit,
and because of COVID, they had removed all of the benches.
So as we're walking through the museum,
I'm looking for somewhere to sit down so I can take a moment,
and we're not finding one.
And the further we get into the museum,
the less I'm looking at the museum,
and the more I'm just looking for a bench.
And by the time we finally found one,
there was a line of people who were looking to sit down,
so we actually just left.
TANY HOLZWORTH: Hey.
I'm Tany Holzsworth.
I'm the content designer for Inclusive Classroom
Tools at Microsoft, and previously,
I was managing the Volunteer Inclusion
Program at Woodland Park Zoo.
And some of the things that were the most successful with us
when we first got started were revamping the Accessibility
Guidelines on our website.
We found that a lot of people with disabilities
didn't perceive the zoo to be accessible
for them to even visit, so it never occurred to them
to volunteer at the zoo.
So by updating the website and making sure
that there was a way to request accommodations or see what
accommodations are available, we were able
to get a lot more folks interested in volunteering.
The other thing that was really important
was training staff and existing volunteers without disabilities
to presume competence of the incoming volunteers.
And by that, I just mean treating them
as much as possible like anybody else
who would be a new volunteer.
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DIANA JOHNS: My name is Diana Johns.
I'm the Vice President for Exhibits, Education,
and Outreach at Pacific Science Center,
and I have been with the Science Center for 17 years now.
I think for an institution that's been around since 1962,
some of the challenges that you're dealing with
are legacy issues.
So one of the best practices is when you have that opportunity
to make a significant change to a legacy area,
how are you thinking about the accessibility of that area?
We recently put in a new experience
that we'd had before, and the vendor
had asked if we could put it back in the same place,
and we said no because that was not accessible to everyone.
CHARLOTTE MARTIN: But the thing I would really
encourage from the very beginning
is engaging directly with disabled self-advocates,
and engage with them at all levels of your planning
from the very beginning at that brainstorming to identify
what the priorities should be or what the challenges are,
what the opportunities are.
It's the expression--
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
We need to start somewhere.
But as long as it's iterative, and we're
learning along the way, that's really
what's going to make the big difference.
KATY MENNE: When designing programs and exhibits,
we try to look at the whole person.
So if you are sitting in a wheelchair,
if you're sitting on the floor, if you're
walking around needing constant movement,
how can you still learn and interact
with our maritime topics?
So materials utilized in classes,
like crayons or scissors, we try to have
several different options.
We hope that as you take on this journey of creating
inclusive and accessible spaces for all people
that you think about putting yourself in the shoes
and in the spaces of others.
ISAAC BEAVERS: As you think about how
to accommodate someone who is blind or visually
impaired and somebody who's deaf or hard-of-hearing,
the fact of the matter is, is that almost all of us
could benefit from something that is larger print,
that is high contrast, almost all of us
could benefit from clear communication.
RYAN SAGLIO: When you make one small change with one community
need in mind, it often has ramifications and can
impact more than just one.
So when you make a space wheelchair accessible,
you make it easier for a mom with a stroller
to also navigate that space.
When you create a gender neutral bathroom,
you create a place for dads to bring their kids or caregivers
who might be out in the community
and need a space that is neither a men's room or a women's room.
Or when you create a picture menu for somebody
that doesn't read, you also allow
someone who might have extreme anxiety
or might be an English language learner
to also occupy that space and have the typical experience.
DIANA JOHNS: When you do design something that you make sure
you are testing that with a wide variety of potential users
because you will learn very quickly if something
is truly as close to universally designed as possible.
So I think it's always never assume
you've got all the answers.
Make sure that you are testing things
with all the variety of users that you hope to invite.
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NARRATOR: This presentation was created
by AccessISL, which supports efforts to make informal STEM
learning opportunities more welcoming
and accessible to everyone, especially individuals
with disabilities.
For more information, visit the AccessISL website,
uw.edu/doit/programs/accessisl.
AccessISL is supported by National Science Foundation
grant number DRL-1906147.
Any questions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations
expressed in this material are those of the speakers,
and do not necessarily reflect the views
of the federal government.
Copyright 2022, University of Washington.
Permission is granted to copy these materials
for educational non-commercial purposes
provided the source is acknowledged.