>I am a museum education intern at Gunston Hall Plantation, the Home of
> George Mason.  I am working on a project to redesign the house
> interpretation for visitors with low vision and blindness.  Has anyone
> had any experiences with this, know any references, or visited a site that
> implemented this well.

When I was at Biltmore Estate, the largest historic house in America, we were
asked to put togther a special tour for students from a school for the blind.
What we did was based on no knowledge of the subject, just a lot of disucssion
and thinking on our part, but the students and teachers loved it and said it
wasa great experience.  In several rooms we talked about the fabric and in
preparation had visited the local fabric store and had fabric samples that were
similar to what were describing to hand to the students to feel.  In one room,
when we talked about furniture and furniture construction, we had a claw and
ball foot that our furniture conservator had carved for us that we could pass
around.  In several rooms, we talked about the different materials on the walls
i.e. brick, stone, wood, and had them feel those.  We also took them to the
stable display rooms so they could smell the leather as we talked about the
room.  And in an effort to give them a sense of how big a 250-room house is,
before they went into the house, we had them "walk" with their hands across the
front facade of the house.  Just the process of putting together that tour has
had a profound impact on how I think about visitors with limited sight.

Susan Ward
Heritage Communications
615-661-6336 ph, 615-371-8774 fax
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