 The Rainmakers: Access Umbrella, a
Boston-based Consulting Firm, Aims to Change Attitudes Toward People with Disabilities.
By Thomas Staudter
Kurt, Barbara and Goofy while conducting accessibility training at Disney World.
Visitors to Disney World in Florida may have noticed Barbara Ceconi and Kurt Kuss walking around the theme park and resort last April. The married couple, both are blind, spent a few days taking in many of the attractions with the help of their Seeing Eye dogs, Luray (his) and Homer (hers). While the couple admittedly delighted in the marvels of the Magic Kingdom, the chiefreason for their visit was to give a presentation on disability awareness to some 200 cast and staff members: "Sensitivity and Awareness Training".
Two years ago, Ceconi, 41, and Kuss, 39, started their Boston-based
consulting firm, Access Umbrella. Combining their personal experiences with
research and expertise, they have devoted their efforts to sensitivity and awareness
training about interacting with people with disabilities, while also advocating
the principles of universal design (the intent of universal design is to make
products, communications, and the built environment usable by as many people
-- disabled or non-disabled, young or old --- as possible.) The services of
Access Umbrella have been eagerly sought after by numerous corporations and
cultural institutions since they opened shop. Ceconi and Kuss, sole proprietors
of their business, travel extensively through the United States. A short list
of their clients includes well-known institutions like Harvard University Medical
School, the Smithsonian Institution, the Boy Scouts of America, the U.S. Mint
in Philadelphia, publishing giant Harcourt, Inc., and public television station
WGBH in Boston. They've also developed training programs for governmental offices
and various recreation facilities.
At Disney World, Ceconi and Kuss took part in the R.A.V.E.
(Respect and Value Everyone) speaker series, which began two years ago and was
designed to educate the theme park's employees, Mickey Mouse included, about
the diversity of people they come in contact with on the job and elsewhere.
Ceconi and Kuss's talk centered on people with disabilities. "In our presentations
we work at reducing the apprehensions people may have when dealing with disabled
individuals, whether they are fellow employees or patrons," says Kuss.
According
to Michael Freeman, manager of diversity planning and administration at Disney
World Co., the level of interest in what the couple had to say was easily measured
by the number of people who stuck around after the presentation was over to
chat and ask further questions. "Barb and Kurt are quite engaging; they create
a real space for discussion and also help take away the fear some may have of
addressing those with disabilities," says Freeman.
"We Prime the Pump"
"Part of what we do is prime the pump and get people who
are in charge to see that it is important to focus more on the overall attitudes
people have toward the disabled while moving past pragmatic and trivial issues
like `How do you put your shoes on?' that don't benefit any real appreciation
or understanding," says Kuss. His wife adds that they stress being "p.c." --
they mean "personally conscious" not politically correct.
The broad scope of Access Umbrella's work is evidenced by
several different projects they completed earlier this spring. First, Noggin
Productions, a film studio in New York City, hired Ceconi and Kuss as advisors
for an episode of A Walk in Your Shoes, a series aired on Nickelodeon cable
channel in which two kids "swap" lives with each other-- in this episode one
of the kids uses a wheelchair. Then, more recently, the Opera Company of Philadelphia
inaugurated a special program that welcomes visually impaired music lovers to
final dress rehearsals and to luncheon lectures given by the opera's production
chiefs and its director. The idea, suggested by Access Umbrella, was to attract
an audience that would utilize the partially obstructed seats at the opera's
home, the Academy of Music. (There are nearly 400 partially and fully obstructed
seats of a total 2,800 in the hall. These seats are always the last sold, if
sold at all.)
"Was it a crazy idea? No, it made a lot of sense,"
says Craig Hamilton, director of marketing and production initiatives at the
opera company. "Having Barb and Kurt develop strategies that would enhance
the experience of opera for the visually impaired-- passing around pieces of
the costume fabric and offering large-print synopses, for instance, enabled
us to do something very rewarding." Hamilton adds that "the best thing
about having Barb and Kurt here was the enthusiasm they generated with the staff.
Everything we've learned from them-- from ushering techniques, to accommodating
guide dogs, and figuring how to describe the theater space and its layout--
has helped us feel more comfortable with those who are disabled. Barb and Kurt
impart a lot of valuable information and give frank answers to frank questions
on sensitive issues that people are ordinarily afraid to ask about. Plus, they
are both rather easy-going and have a great sense of humor, which keeps everyone
relaxed and willing to learn." Over the next two years the Opera Company
will continue with four more trial runs of the free dress-rehearsal program.
"Who knows, maybe the participants will become patrons with a subscription
to the opera," says Hamilton.
The Importance of Universal Design
A lot of the concrete tips that Access Umbrella offers
are, in many regards, just nuanced gems of common sense. To wit: Holding a
conversation with someone in a wheelchair while standing over them "is literally
a pain in the neck," says Ceconi, while those with cognitive disabilities
need to receive information slowly, preferably in short sentences. And another
thing to keep in mind is that not all people with disabilities are challenged
to the same degree either; Kuss, for example, can with the help of magnification
read some materials with large print, but his wife cannot.
Besides promoting awareness and sensitivity, Ceconi and Kuss
inform clients, mainly museums, about ADA compliance and the importance of universal
design. Betty Davidson, Ph.D., an exhibit planner at the Museum of Science in
Boston and a strong proponent of universal-design approaches, first convinced
Ceconi, then a neighbor, to volunteer to talk to the museum's staff several
years ago about disability issues. Before long Ceconi was working with Davidson
on implementing and retro-fitting some of the museum's exhibits with aspects
of universal design-- using multi-sensory features like sound loops, smells,
and objects that can be touched and held, all of which make the exhibits more
accessible to those with disabilities. "Research data also show that everyone,
not just the disabled, retains more information from exhibits with universal
design," says Ceconi.
One example of a "retro-fitted" exhibit is the "New
England Habitats" exhibit. Originally a series of dioramas depicting environmental
development in New England, the exhibit was enlivened with recorded ambient
sounds that complemented the dioramas; objects that people could hold; and various
smells. "Natural Mysteries," a new exhibit about the scientific classification
of living creatures and organic material opening May 23 at the Museum of Science,
is one of several exhibits Ceconi has worked on that was "planned from the
ground up with universal-design components," says Davidson. Three years
of planning and preparations went into this exhibit. Ceconi and Kuss asked the
design team to consider what they wanted to convey and then helped figure out
how to present the materials in and accessible way to all patrons. Many "hands-on"
components were incorporated, such as a game where patrons had to match an animal's
skull to other bones of its body. "What I want to do is include all kinds
of people and make other ways of 'seeing' integral to the exhibit here,"
Davidson continues. "Western style classification stresses 'finding the pattern',
but how do you find patterns if you can't see? You must find clues, then, using
other skills to your advantage." Davidson says that that more persons with
disabilities are visiting the museum than ever before.
Engendering lifelong changes
It's Ceconi and Kuss's mission to reach as many as possible
with new information, new perspectives, and new understandings. To this end
the couple is busier than ever. After participating in the Accessible Practices
conference held in Boston last April by the Association of Science Technology
Centers, they began working on a presentation for the International Universal
Design Conference to be held this June in Providence, R.I.
"Engendering a lifelong change in peoples' attitudes toward
the disabled is what this is about," says Kuss. "At the Magic Kingdom in Disney World we were standing
on Main Street when this young girl came up to us and said, 'I know you--
you both came to my school in Brookline [Mass.] and talked to my fourth-grade
class.' Sure, it's a small world after all, but that kind of personal contact
you make with people creates a different kind of thinking."
May 2000 Copyright � 2000 We Media Inc.
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