[NFBF-Melbourne] FW: [NFBF-L] Short shrift for disabled at Mall's FDR Memorial

Sat May 22 16:18:58 UTC 2021

This article is very interesting. I have been to D. C. over the years and
recognize that some cultural icons, like the Smithsonian and Ford's Theatre,
have made attempts to incorporate accessibility into exhibits and
productions, but not all museums, galleries and other places of interest.
Hopefully, this presentation will go far in making these stanchions of
American history accessible to the blind and print disabled. 

Camille 

From: NFBF-L <nfbf-l-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of PLipovsky via NFBF-L
Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2021 11:30 AM
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Cc: PLipovsky <plipovsky at cfl.rr.com>
Subject: [NFBF-L] Short shrift for disabled at Mall's FDR Memorial

Someone forwarded this to me and I thought I would share it For your
information 

Short shrift for disabled at Mall's FDR Memorial . Theresa Vargas. 

My 6-year-old noticed the raised dots first. My family was playing tourist
on a recent weekend, making our way from one monument on the National Mall
to another, and we decided to start our walk at the Franklin D. Roosevelt
Memorial. As we stood at one wall, looking at scenes depicted on metal
panels, my son ran his hands over a cluster of dots in a lower corner and
asked about them. What followed was a conversation that has no doubt taken
place countless times in front of that wall. We talked about Braille. I
explained to him that, through touch, it allowed people who couldn't see
with their eyes to read about the images on those panels. I told him it was
there to make sure everyone could experience the memorial. 

This week, I learned I was wrong. The Braille at the memorial is not easily
readable. It is more artful than helpful, and in some places, completely
undecipherable, according to a report that will be released Thursday by the
FDR Memorial Legacy Committee. I was allowed to get an early look at the
13-page report, which will be the subject of an online discussion Thursday
titled "Accessibility is NOT optional. The report details the accessibility
shortcomings of a memorial that has long been seen as a testament to the
heights people with disabilities can reach. 

FDR didn't just steer the country through the Great Depression and World War
II; he did that from a wheelchair. "It's the only memorial that shows one of
our great presidents had a disability, and I think for it to not be
sensitive to all disabilities is a shame," Gordon Gund, who is blind and is
scheduled to speak at that online discussion, tells me on a recent
afternoon. "It's not inclusive as it ought to be. In many ways, the story of
the memorial captures the country's evolving views of disabilities. 

Roosevelt served as president from 1933 until his death in 1945, and during
that time, he tried hard to conceal from the public that polio had left him
unable to walk unassisted. Before his memorial opened in 1997, demonstrators
chanted at the site, "Don't hide FDR's source of strength. They called for
the memorial to include a statue of the president seated in his wheelchair.
But that didn't happen - not then, and not for several more years. It wasn't
until January 2001 that the life-size bronze statue of Roosevelt in a
wheelchair was displayed at the memorial. "The unveiling is a major national
moment, the removal of the shroud of shame that cloaks disability," a
Washington Post article quoted Alan A. Reich, then president of the National
Organization on Disability, saying at the time. "The statue will become a
shrine to people with disabilities, but it will also inspire everyone to
overcome obstacles. Gund recalls standing in the crowd that day, feeling the
weight of that moment. "I was moved that, at last, that well-kept secret was
out for everybody's good," he says. "It really was taking the cloak off. It
was exposing the truth. 

Now, 20 years later, exposing the truth comes in a different form. It
involves looking closely at who can and who can't experience a public space,
and the reasons for that. Gund says he was familiar with some of the Braille
issues at the memorial, but he describes the new report as showing him
accessibility issues that he didn't know existed. One finding that stood out
to him was that the barriers placed around broken fountains are difficult to
detect by a person who depends on a white cane to get around, a description
that fits Gund. "If objects are greater than 27 inches in height, a person's
cane will go under the object and the person will not detect it," reads the
report. "In my opinion, the most dangerous fountain is the in-ground
fountain in Room One because it drops a couple of feet straight down with no
difference in elevation between the lip of the fountain and the surrounding
sidewalk. The stanchions should be replaced by a guardrail - posts drilled
into the sidewalk would be cane-detectable. 

The report was written by Cheryl Fogle-Hatch, who is blind and created
MuseumSenses, a website to discuss the work she is doing to make museums,
galleries and other cultural organizations more accessible. She was
commissioned to inspect the site by the FDR Memorial Legacy Committee, which
aims as part of its mission to document, preserve and share the work that
has gone into disability representation at the site. Fogle-Hatch says she
hadn't visited the memorial before going on March 17. The report provides a
detailed account of her experience there. It shows her struggling to
navigate the website for the memorial, and then once there, trying to piece
together the Braille like a puzzle. "The Braille ranges from somewhat
readable to completely unrecognizable," the report reads. "This includes the
quote in the Prologue Room and the letters on the workers mural and the
quotes on the columns in Room One. . . . The Braille on the columns is
completely unreadable because the dots are indented. They feel like holes in
the stone, and they are not recognizable as dots. 

In a 1997 Washington Post article that detailed the problems with the
Braille, one blind visitor lamented, "If they're going to go to the trouble
to put the dots there, it would be helpful if there were actually something
you could read. Fogle-Hatch points to that article to show the issue has
been raised for decades, and yet nothing has been done about it. A simple
solution, she says, would be to add small signs that explain in readable
Braille that the Braille on the memorial is an artistic rendering that is
not to scale. Fogle-Hatch says her report is not meant to be adversarial
toward the National Park Service, which oversees the memorials on the
National Mall. It acknowledges that officials are aware of some of the
accessibility issues and have put together plans to eventually address them.
Fogle-Hatch also recognizes that government entities have many priorities
and tend to move slowly. But what makes the report significant is that it
puts these issues in front of the public, instead of leaving them tucked
away in government documents that most people won't see. It lets officials
know that people are paying attention and are waiting for a memorial that
tells the story of disability representation in the country to show - not
just through a statue, but also through action - how far that's come. "We're
just reminding them that it's important," Fogle-Hatch says. "Over the years,
I've had people say to me, 'There is a memorial on the Mall where there is
Braille on the walls. Well, sort of.

theresa.vargas at washpost.com <mailto:theresa.vargas at washpost.com>  Read more
from Theresa Vargas: 

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