Feeling at Home at the Tenement Museum
After time spent yesterday touring the Tenement Museum and speaking with its educators, it became clear that tremendous thought went into the development of the museum, particularly with regard to accessibility.
In spite of the location of the museum in a historic tenement, those affiliated with museum have made the space an accommodating one. Accessibility at the museum is well-rounded and considers the needs of those with various impairments:
Mobile
- An elevator may have been present when the building existed as a tenement, but it continues to serve those who are unable to navigate the stairs.
- Foldable, moveable stools consider those who are unable to stand for extended periods during the tour.
Hearing
- Closed captioning on garment shop videos communicates audio to those who have difficulty hearing.
- A garment shop directional speaker targets sound toward visitors who stand underneath.
- A transcript accompanies each audiovisual element throughout the tour.
- A museum tour exists for American sign language users, led by a museum staff member who uses sign language.
Visual
- Audio description and touch tour options are available to those with low-vision or blindness.
- Visitors can touch sensor-equipped objects within the garment shop to receive audio information.
With tools available to all general tour participants, no person is isolated from the rest of the group. I found access to these tools to be helpful for my own tour experience. Extraneous noise interfered with my ability to hear an oral history recording, so having access to its associated transcript was useful.
As one last thought, I think it is innovative how the museum disguised seating areas as part of the exhibit! It was refreshing to be surprised by this use of exhibit space, I was not expecting to be able to sit on Bella Epstein’s bed or watch something on Ramonita’s television. Needless to say, this experience felt incredibly personal!
