SaraCrewe wrote:
>
> Or you could just ask someone to hold the door open. That might free up
> precious funds for the actual museum, as opposed to an supermarket-type
> door that might be used twice - maybe - in a year by someone in a
> wheelchair.

There may be extenuating circumstances in the original post, which I missed,
but I have to take exception to the implications of this statement.  We installed
a button door at a museum that gets about 40,000 visits per year...not very high
by museum standards.  I would guess that door (cost around $2000 to modify
as I recall) was used several times a WEEK during the summer by someone
needing that assistance (and please remember that it is not ONLY people in
wheelchairs who find that assistance valuable, just as it is not only people in
wheelchairs who use a ramp once it's provided...and each person uses it twice
per visit, entering and leaving).

In many of these instances, access for someone in a wheelchair means that a
family gets to enjoy an outing with a grandparent,  or that a student joins
his/her class smoothly on a field trip. While it's nice to imagine that your staff
will always be on hand and alert to the need to help someone at the door, ask
someone in a wheelchair how often that REALLY happens!

Of course, if your site is not otherwise welcoming to people with handicaps
(i.e., they can't get from the parking lot to the front door), then your low
estimate will be self-fulfilling and you won't be bothered by many of
"those" people.

Incidentally, people in wheelchairs are as likely to pay taxes or make private
contributions to provide those "precious funds" as the rest of us...another
reason to think of them as a regular part of your clientele, not a special case
you're being unfairly asked to pander to.

Best wishes,
Tom
--

Tom Vaughan    "The Waggin' Tongue"
<[log in to unmask]>   (970) 533-1215
11795 Road 39.2, Mancos, CO 81328  USA
Cultural Resource Management, Interpretation, Planning, & Training