Courtesy of Gateway Arch Park Foundation
The newly renovated Museum at the Gateway Arch offers plenty of opportunities for visitors to look, listen, and learn.
But it also features exhibit items that not only allow, but encourage, visitors to use their sense of touch to form a physical connection with history—all a part of the museum's use of universal design. Universal design features are meant to make environments more accessible and understandable to people, regardless of their age, size, or ability. And, though the museum has only been reopened to the public for a few days, the touchable exhibits have already collected plenty of fingerprints.
“We’re discovering all of our visitors are appreciating the fact that every exhibit has something they can explore with their hands,” says Rhonda Schier, chief of museum services and interpretation at Gateway Arch National Park.
For instance, visitors can touch every curve and contour of a small metal buffalo statue before feeling a piece of fur mounted nearby that allows them to connect the form with its natural texture. In other cases, actual artifacts, including old pieces of the Eads Bridge, are on display and touchable. Additional universal design elements include large-print information cards and wheelchair-accessible exhibit spaces that allow people in a seated position to get good views, something that wasn’t available throughout the museum before its recent remodel.
Museum staffers are also working to add more universal design elements, such as audio guidance that will enable visually-impaired visitors to access more material through interactive exhibit features. For example, they will be able to cue up specific songs that let them experience history. The National Park Service also has funds to add American Sign Language to some of its videos, so the universal design elements will continue to evolve.
And as museums around the country increasing incorporate interactive features to engage today’s audiences, the Museum at the Gateway Arch is also morphing from a place where people would come to gaze at artifacts through glass into an exploratory environment where visitors of all abilities can learn history hands-on.
“And the universal design concepts fit right in with that, so I would just like to encourage people to come take a look,” says Schier. “We hope everyone will feel welcome and make this their museum.”
