PPD: User Friendly Exhibits: Designing Accessible Exhibits for Science Museums

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In 1997, the Association of Science-Technology Centers (ASTC) launched an initiative to familiarize its member institutions with the challenges and opportunities for better meeting the needs of persons with disabilities and, in particular, young people with disabilities. The proposed project "User Friendly Exhibits: Designing Accessible Exhibits for Science Museums" is an information dissemination project that will help make science museums more inviting places for persons with disabilities by fundamentally changing the way science museums are developed and tested. Over the three years of this project, ASTC will conduct a series of six Regional Training Workshops and three workshops prior to the ASTC annual conference to train exhibit design professionals working in science museums and science-rich institutions in ways to make exhibits accessible to persons with disabilities. Participation will be drawn from ASTC member institutions as well as science-rich institutions represented by four national profession organizations. An estimated 330 exhibit planners from 100 science museums will receive this training, making a long-term impact on the infrastructure of exhibit design in the science center field. Faculty for the workshops will be drawn from more than 50 individuals with personal and professional experience with disabilities who were contacted by ASTC in the course of work on a 1997 NSF planning grant to create an information clearinghouse for accessible museum practices on ASTC's web page. Science museums provide science enrichment activities for well over 12 million school children each year, as well as home schoolers, summer program participants, and teenage explainers and assistants. The exhibits and programs of science centers and museums, planetariums, nature trails, zoos, collocations, and school and family programs support multi-m661, experiential learning that accommodates different learning interests. ASTC is the world's largest organization of science museums. Its annual conference is the largest professional gathering for people working in a field dedicated to fostering curiosity and opportunities for exploring the world, enhancing a learning process throughout life.