Abstract
In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. It stated that reasonable accommodations must be made for persons with disabilities. Examples of I4reasonable accommodations" may include providing Braille restroom door plates, wider aisles in supermarkets, and picture-menus in restaurants. For planetariums, ADA compliance can include Braille star maps, removable seats, empty spaces for wheelchairs, or providing scripts to hearing-impaired visitors.
Since 1988, I've produced Braille astronomy materials for our planetarium and worked with staff of the Museum of Science, Boston, to improve accessibility for visitors with disabilities. I'd like to describe our newest accommodation, a captioning system for the deaf, and outline some of the steps we took to increase our accessibility for hearing-impaired patrons.
