Dear all,

I am sorry to take up this thread again and to enervate some of you.
Some days ago, the discussion on the rising number of visitors at 
Rochester to get in exhibitions with dogs and drinking bottles was 
abruptly ended by a statement of my German colleague, Angela Kipp. 
Fortunately, some of you kept the pot boiling and offered answers to the 
question raised in the original posting by Marie Via.

In her statement, Angela Kipp wrote:

    And as a German and a museum professional I wish to make clear that
    the views stated by Christian in no way represent the opinions of
    museum professionals in Germany. This is one author expressing his
    personal views and has nothing to do with the culture in Germany and
    how we treat disabilities and how we wish people with medical issues
    are treated.

In a later additions, she revoked parts of her statement saying that her 
and my statements are all personal statements and that she also is not 
entitled to act as the official voice of German museums or the German 
Museum association (DMB). And she also revoked her statement on 
"privileges" of disabled as she prefers the term "rights" in this matter.

As her statement is a bit thick, I gave Angela the opportunity to revoke 
_all_ parts of her quoted accuse in time, because the internet is no 
legal vacuum. As she refused to revoke _all_ elements of her statements 
here in the list, I am compelled to clarify:

- As an art historian, member of ICOM Germany and museologist I am 
writing _on_ museums wordwide since 20 years.
- There is a semantic (logical) difference between "rights" and 
"privileges" of disabled citizens [Of course, not all privileges 
worldwide are based on equal rights]. I am using the term "privileges" 
because other visitors are barred from bringing in dogs into 
exhibitions. In this particular case, the privileges of disabled are 
based on equal rights.
- I agree totally with the approach of the German Museum Association 
(http://www.museumsbund.de/de/das_museum/themen/barrierefreiheit_im_museum/) 
and ICOM Germany + the approach of majority if not all Geman museums 
towards disabled citizens. This is the main point in Angela's statement 
I have to reject.
- In Germany, we have a special ID card for the disabled, we have also 
special licence plates and special cards for using the parking lots near 
the museum entrances. So, anyone with an unvisible disability who claims 
privileges can prove it easily, while visitors with visible disabilities 
do not need this card system - anyone at the front desk would grant them 
the respective pivileges.

By the way: sniffling around in some German "handicapped blogs", I 
learned that our German handicap proofs (doctor's statements or the 
mentioned "official" cards) are accepted by many institutions of the 
U.S. Smile.

Best


Christian



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