Accessibility

Accessibility has become one of my greatest interests, due to personal reasons and my dissertation research.

The research has grown to become a book, published by Rowman and Littlefield in July 2014.  You can order the book online from their website.

Research regarding the history of accessibility, disability, and museums is also available in various forms.  The American Association of State and Local History published my article “The Legacy of the Freakshow in Museums” in the national magazine, AASLH History News, in the Fall 2013 edition.  

I also wrote an award-winning article called, “Disability, the Sideshow, and Modern Museum Practices” in the Scientia et Humanitas journal.

Here is a selection of my blogs written about accessibility topics.

I have written reviews about accessibility at other museums available here:

• Lower East Side Tenement Museum
• Jewish Museum in New York City
• Coney Island, USA
• New York City Transit Museum
• Museum of Modern Art in New York City
• Lori Stratton and the USS Intrepid

In the Fall of 2012, I hosted a workshop for museum and historic site professionals to learn more about accessibility at Middle Tennessee State University.  Learn more about that workshop here.

I also presented at several conferences about accessibility including:

• AASLH 2014 – St. Paul, Minnesota – Chair and Presenter of Welcoming All Visitors: Accessible Programs at History Museums and Sites
• Sensitivity and Awareness at Your Museum or Cultural Organization at the Tennessee Association of Museums in 2012
• Western Social Sciences Association, Chronic Disease and Disability section at the 2013 Denver, Colorado Conference