Dark,
While you're waiting, here are some things to do in New York:
One of the first places to take a visually impaired visitor is the
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
home to the first garden in the United States specifically designed for
blind or limited vision visitors. The Alice Recknagel Ireys Fragrance
Garden, created
in 1955, offers plants selected for their fragrant or tactile qualities.
Visitors are encouraged to touch and smell all the plants.
The Fragrance Garden plants, grown in raised beds, are the perfect height
for those in wheelchairs or kids in strollers. They are very popular with
small
children and can be enjoyed by anyone. Braille labels identify the plants,
and young kids also enjoy the tactile guides.
Lighthouse International,
based in New York, publishes a guide, "Let's Go! Museums in The Big Apple."
The guide details information on facilities for the vision impaired at
museums
throughout the city. Some museums offer regularly scheduled touch tours,
offering a tactile way for kids and adults to experience the museum; others
have
verbal descriptive tours where guides go into great detail about what you
are encountering.
Additionally, the non-profit
Art Education for the Blind
publishes a
New York Beyond Sight
audio guide with descriptions of favorite attractions by prominent New
Yorkers. Their website provides many other resources for travelers with
sight impairments
Family members of any age will appreciate a rainy day or an afternoon at the
Andrew Heiskell Library for the Blind
at 40 West 20th Street in Chelsea. This barrier-free branch of the New York
City Public Library has adult and children's reading rooms which provide
specially-formatted
materials, equipment for listening to recorded books and magazines, and a
variety of other electronic reading aids. There may even be a free concert
or
lecture at your visit, so check their schedule ahead of time.
Exploring The Intrepid Sea, Air And Space Museum With The Blind
The
U.S. S. Intrepid
offers monthly guided verbal description and touch tours through the USS
Intrepid, a WW II-era aircraft carrier. You can also book a private tour.
For those with low vision, the museum offers verbal description and tactile
guides using smart pen technology. Borrow the guides at the information desk
and take the self-guided tour, with raised line maps, tactile images of
artifacts and audio.
AFB American Foundation for the Blind
2 Penn Plaza, Suite 1102
New York, NY 10121
American Foundation for the Blind building
on 16th Street in Manhattan,
Lighthouse International
111 East 59th Street
(800) 829-0500
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