I am at the Cummer Museum of Art in Jacksonville as Associate Director of
Education, but also direct our programs for individuals with disabilities.
 We do a lot for children and adults with various disabilities and believe
that accessibility is much more than building a ramp to the door.  Most of
our efforts are on creating programs that are meaningful and appropriate.
 The Museum is also a local site for VSA arts, an orgnaization that you
probably already know about.  There mission is to bring arts opportunities
to individuals with disabilities.  They provide technical and financial
support for some of our disabilities programs.  We have an annual art
festival for students with disabilities inside the museum, which has grown
to 2,000 participants and 500 volunteers. One of our big focuses is on
programming for individuals who are blind or low vision.  We have special
tours for students, hands-on exhibit areas in our interactive center
created for this segment of the population.  Our most successful program is
entitled Women of Vision.  This group of women meets at the museum once a
month for art experiences and "writing" workshops with a creative writing
professor from one of our local universities.  The program has just
completed its second year and has been one of our strongest programs.  The
art lessons range from clay and basketry to painting and art history
lessons.

Since our programs are quite extensive, you may want to contact me off the
list so as not to tie things up for those who are not interested.  I do
have some written lessons and information that I can pass along.

Sincerely,
Hope McMath
Associate Director of Education
Project Director, VSA arts Florida/Jacksonville
The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens

-----Original Message-----
From:   Joel Snyder [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Friday, June 23, 2000 9:14 AM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Accessibility

Would love to hear from others on this list about museum approaches to
accessibility for people with disabilities -- mobility/physical access-wise
but also *programmatically*.  My specific interest, per my recent post, is
on access for people who are blind or have low vision (although many access
techniques make for a more enjoyable museum visit for anyone) -- what are
you folks doing, on the program side, to build access to this segment of
the population?
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