>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 [log in to unmask]