The Cincinnati Art Museum will begin construction on a new front entrance ramp this week. The ramp comes as an addition to the DeWitt entrance, an accessible entrance at the back of the building.
“The twenty-first century visitor to the Cincinnati Art Museum experiences state of the art museum interpretation, stellar art collections and intergenerational learning. Equity and inclusion, for people of all abilities, backgrounds, and life stages, is essential to these goals. Universal and equal physical access is a welcome advancement we are excited to complete for Cincinnati,” said Cameron Kitchin, Cincinnati Art Museum’s Louis and Louise Dieterle Nippert director, in a release.
The ramp is part of a 2016-2020 museum plan that has seen the expansion of accessibility programming, the creation of an accessibility committee and introduced employee training on welcoming all visitors.
Construction on the front entrance ramp begins Feb. 25 and is scheduled to be finished by the end of summer. For the first six weeks of construction, the front entrance will be closed all day Tuesday-Thursday and Friday until 3 p.m., but all visitors can use the back DeWitt entrance at any time.
The number of patrons attending accessibility programming has doubled since 2015. Newer programs include Autism Family Exploration, a before-hours, sensory-friendly program, and Custom Accessibility Tours, a scheduled sensory tour experience for groups who aren’t able to attend regularly scheduled programs.
Accessibility programming was introduced in 2011, offering Touch Tours for people who are blind or partially sighted; American Sign Language tours for people who are deaf or have partial hearing; and Connect, a program for adults with developmental disabilities.
“I’m really excited to work together to make the museum a more accessible place for those with different abilities. We want to make the museum a leader in accessibility. The committee will find ways that we can better welcome all kinds of visitors, and help them have the best experience possible while they are here,” said Sara Birkofer, the museum’s manager of accessibility and gallery programs.
Staff training will continue on a quarterly basis with a focus on people-first language, welcoming all groups and working with families whose children have autism and adults with developmental disabilities, according to the release.
For more information about accessibility at the Cincinnati Art Museum, visit cincinnatiartmuseum.org/access.
This article appears in Feb 20-27, 2019.