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? << File: ATT00000.html >> ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).