The museum is open and accessible to people from each demographic group. It aims at acquainting inquisitive people to the mysterious world in specimens. Being open to a diverse audience also welcomes the people living with disabilities such as wheelchairs users, mentally the visually challenged, and hearing-impaired people.
It is a huge museum and one must take recommended three to four hours or a whole day to wander around the museum.
Hence, the question arises if it is possible for people with physical disabilities and senior citizens who face health issues and get tired to visit and spend hours wandering around the museum? Well, this article will clear all your doubts in three minutes of reading.
Wheelchair Accessibility Challenges
Spending a whole day or even three to four hours walking around such a huge museum can be tiring for older people and for physically disabled people it can be challenging to visit if the museum is not wheelchair friendly.
Some museums have wheelchair entrances located at a greater distance from the regular entrance to make misguided attempts to accommodate disabled people. This attempt leads to social exclusion where disabled people get apart from their family or friends who are their companions.
Also, the museums that are not wheelchair friendly tend to omit wheelchair users by making them face various challenges like not having the access to ramps, lack of open space, and isolation due to tall furniture. Furthermore, staff at museums sometimes fail to assist the visitors with proper care and attention.
If talking about the Natural History Museum, all the above-mentioned challenges faced by wheelchair users have been eliminated because the museum aims at delivering equal knowledge to every single person.
Wheelchair Accessibility At Natural History Museum: All You Need To Know
Wheelchairs at the Natural History Museum are available to disabled people and old people as well for use on a first-come, and first-served basis. Wheelchairs can be hired for free from the information desk at the Exhibition Road entrance of the museum. The Exhibition Road Entrance has step-free access to the museum which means the entrance has ramps for providing smooth entrance to wheelchair users. Exit at the museum have also stair-free access. Natural History Museum has elevators and ramps that make it easy for wheelchair users to reach public floors. The 3D theater at the museum also has wheelchair locations there and companion seats for wheelchair users. Wheelchair users also have the access to food service areas easily without any obstruction with the help of ramps without taking steps or turnstiles. All the gender-restrooms at the museum are also wheelchair accessible. Family or companion care restrooms are located on the First Floor. Although all the wheelchairs at the museum are manually operated and not motorized. The wheelchair borrowed from the information desk may not be taken outside of the museum. The wheelchairs can be used within the building for free. Wheelchairs are properly cleaned and sanitized to maintain the health and safety rules of the museum. Visitors must provide their photo id and phone number at the information desk while borrowing wheelchairs.
Conclusion
The world being partial to the people with disabilities can obstruct them from getting equal rights to the people with no disabilities. It can make them feel excluded from society. Many museums that acquire the treasure of knowledge may restrict disabled people from obtaining the right amount of knowledge and joy by being partial towards them.
Natural History Museum has kept its doors open to a variety of audiences which makes the museum exclusively public. The museum contains all the facilities for wheelchair users, visitors who are deaf or hard of hearing, and visitors who are blind or partially sighted.
Therefore, if you are a wheelchair user and thinking of visiting the museum, you probably should without any hesitation. The museum is full of facilities and the staff there is well supportive and friendly. The museum focuses on providing knowledge to everyone impartially.
Q 1. Is Natural History Museum Wheelchair accessible?
Ans. Yes, the Natural History Museum is wheelchair accessible.
Q 2. Where can I borrow a wheelchair at the Natural History Museum for free?
Ans. You can borrow the wheelchair from the information desk at the Exhibition Road entrance of the museum for free.
Q 3. Is the staff at the Natural History Museum friendly and supportive to the people with disabilities?
Ans. Yes, the staff there is very friendly, supportive, and impartial to the people with any kind of disability.
