Exhibit Design Relating to Low Vision and Blindness: What Visitors with Vision Loss Want Museums and Parks to Know about Effective Communication

Making arrangements in advance of a visit and scheduled programming

Everyone had experience with making advance arrangements to visit a museum. Participants said they call a museum at least two weeks in advance of their visit. When asked if this was convenient, they admitted it would be preferable to be able to call just a few days in advance. Participants acknowledged it depends upon what you are asking the museum or park to provide. They would like to have options to choose from for their visit. If it’s a Braille publication, it should be readily available. If you are asking for a personal docent-led tour that includes tactile experiences, they didn’t think it was unreasonable for the museum to require time to organize it. They did think a museum should be able to provide a staff member or volunteer to provide audio description only with less lead-time, perhaps a week’s notice. One participant thought local visitors could more easily schedule accessibility services in advance but non-local visitors may not know about the museum’s requirements. She suggested having volunteers available who are ready to provide audio description and facilitate tactile experiences and advertising their availability both through signage at the museum and on the website.

For most participants, a visit to a museum occurs when family and friends are visiting. For the young, single participants, the idea of scheduled programming seemed more appealing than it did for the others. They did worry programs would be discontinued because enough people weren’t using them on a consistent basis.