Newtown Museum, 10 Area Institutions Collaborate On Portal

NEWTOWN, CT — Nearly a month after EverWonder Children's Museum and 10 other area institutions met at the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk to discuss ways to make visits easier for guests with special needs, a helpful website is set to go live this week to further aid in that initiative.

On Tuesday, April 2, anyone planning a visit to the aquarium or one of the 10 other area institutions will be able to visit the Accessibility for All website (accessibilityforallct.org), a "one-stop shop" for information about how each attraction accommodates guests with special needs.

"It’s really exciting," Maritime Aquarium Director of Education and Volunteers Tom Naiman said. "One of the driving forces behind this whole initiative was that when we met with some parents and service providers to groups that have special needs, one thing they impressed upon us was how difficult it could be to get information they needed in order to plan a successful visit to one of our facilities; that they don’t really know who to call or will get passed around from one person to another [when they call], and there’s such a need for a means of helping them prepare for visits to the aquarium, zoo or museum."

See also: Newtown Museum, 10 Area Institutions Discuss Accessibility

From there, the concept of a portal specifically designed for people who want to plan a visit for guests who have special needs grew. On March 5, the 11 institutions participating in the program met at the aquarium to, among other things, collaborate on ideas for the portal.

The 11 participating institutions include:

• EverWonder Children's Museum of Newtown
• The Maritime Aquarium of Norwalk
• Stepping Stones Museum for Children of Norwalk
• The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum of Ridgefield
• The Connecticut Audubon Society of Fairfield
• Earthplace of Westport
• Audubon Greenwich
• The Bruce Museum of Greenwich
• The Stamford Museum & Nature Center
• Connecticut's Beardsley Zoo of Bridgeport
• Discovery Museum of Bridgeport

"Our thought was, rather than families and service providers having to hunt and peck around all of our websites, each of which is designed differently, let’s assemble the information in the same format," Naiman said, "so you can look at what each institution is offering and you can see from page to page the same type of information presented the same way, with links to the appropriate information on each of our websites."

According to Naiman, though everything an interested party may need to know will not be presented on the portal, it will act as an entryway to all of that specific information.

"As we were talking with the other institutions about this idea, it emerged that it would also be really exciting to include a calendar on the website," Naiman said. "That way, all of us who have various events that are intended for guests with special needs could place them on this joint calendar and you don’t have to hunt around each of our websites. Instead, you can look in one place to see what these 11 institutions in Fairfield County are offering for the month of April or May and plan a visit."

The institutions will also use the portal to indicate events they think are likely to be extremely crowded or noisy to help parents and others decide whether they want to visit that day, or perhaps plan a visit for another day when it might be quieter.

Each participating institution has also created an Accessibility Coordinator to ensure there is an actual person to call regarding that specific information, the contact information for which will be listed on the portal.

"One of the things that’s been really exciting about this is that it’s forced us to take a look at our own websites and think about ways that we’re presenting information," Naiman said. "It’s made us become more accessible in that we want to be able to present on the portal all the things we are doing. In some cases we have created things specifically because we want to link to them from the portal, so we’ve beefed up the information on our own website that’s related to guests with special needs."

After the portal launches this week, the group will look at what worked and what didn't, if anything, and will continue to refine it. They are also looking both into ways they can continue to collaborate on ideas pertaining to accessibility in the future and ways they can incorporate other interested institutions who have contacted them about providing their information on the portal.

"The enthusiasm around this project, among the participants and the wider public, has just been so gratifying," Naiman said, "and it really makes us feel that we are addressing a need that is overdue, and it’s really exciting to be in that position."