My social justice project is to provide an equitable visitor experience for the disabled community at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (an educational institution and a museum).This page will provide the scope of work.
What Do I Plan To do?
I plan to get my organization more than ADA compliant. More than that, I want to develop resources, technology, and an app to make sure that the disabled community, whatever their disability, has a comparable visitors experience to any non-disabled individual. Currently the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute has implemented the very basics of ADA compliance, by providing ramp access, Braille, and closed captions of all videos within the galleries. In the short term I plan to add additional Braille translations, add Spanish as a foreign language option, and several tactile experiences. Ultimately I would like for the institute to have multiple upgrades and implementations that accommodate multiple disabilities.
Why Is It Important
The disabled community makes up 15% of the world’s population. Since there are so many different disabilities it makes it look like a non-unified group. If they are not going to advocate on their behalf as a unified group then it is the responsibility of the organizations to provide the proper equitable measures to make sure that the disabled community has what they need, so that the organization can best fulfill its mission, vision, and values. I believe that my museum has a narrative that all people deserve to learn about and there should not be any limitations for any visitor experiencing the permanent galleries at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
List of References
https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/disability