School for Spies exhibit
International Spy Museum
After a June 3 settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., will become more accessible to people with visual impairments.
Indiana University reports that Ray Bloomer, director of education for the National Center on Accessibility at Indiana University, provided DOJ and the museum staff with technical assistance about how to better meet the accessibility needs of visitors with visual impairments.
Bloomer, who is blind and is a 30-year veteran of the National Park Service, said "the settlement agreement requires the museum to provide for increased program access by including such design features as the provision of tactile maps of the museum and floor plan that visitors can borrow; qualified audio describers for any requested museum audiovisual presentations, computer interactives or exhibits; qualified readers to read labels in all exhibitions; and a representative sample of objects, models and/or reproductions of objects to communicate the main themes of the exhibitions for tactile examination, accompanied by audio description."
"This is a wake-up call to other museums," Bloomer said. "It lets people with disabilities, in particular those who are blind or have low vision, know that they have a right to receive equal benefit and enjoyment of the museum experience."
