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Public Art Conference Archive—2001
Study Session: ADA Accessibility + Public Art
Summary
The experiences and challenges of people with disabilities are as moving and varied as the many forms public art can take. When commissioning and installing public art, complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act can be as confusing as the law is ambiguous. This study session will offer the insights of experienced public art administrators and direct you toward resources in order to help you see accessibility to public art in a new light.
The first section of the study session focused on ADA legislation to works of art. This is critical to the public art field because of its potential effect on the display of artwork in the public domain. The group discussed a case in San Francisco in which a Claus Oldenberg sculpture called Cupid's Bow will be placed in a plaza on the Embarcadero next to the Bay. The artist had intended that the bow's arrow would pierce the earth of a broad lawn. However, at the insistence of the City's Disability Access coordinator, the lawn will be replaced by an impenetrable planter bed so that those in wheel chairs will have equal access to the art.
The second section of the study session primarily on the San Francisco Arts Commission's Guidelines for Programmatic Access to Visual Arts Programs. The Guidelines were developed to enrich the lives of San Franciscans of all abilities, and in response to the mandate of the Federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), passed in 1990.
Title II of the ADA requires that public entities provide "programmatic accessibility", meaning access to the content of a program or service. The unique contribution of the San Francisco Arts Commission guidelines is its definition of specific standards for programmatic access to public art, including identification plaques, written and audio descriptions of the artwork and talking signs. An entire section is addressed to artists, to encourage consideration of the broadest possible audience at the conceptual stages of a project. This section includes a description of strategies artists might consider to increase inclusiveness.
Copies of the Guidelines were distributed to participants and are available by mail or, in a text-only version, at the Arts Commission's web site at http://sfac.sfsu.edu/pubart. For the printed version with annotated photographs, contact tonia_macneil@ci.sf.ca.us.
The group discussed ways to look at accessibility as an opportunity for public art to address a broader audience. Artists and Arts Administrators should begin in the preplanning and design stages to develop projects which will be usable to all people throughout their lives (e.g. some of the needs of people using wheelchairs or people with sight impairments are similar to the needs of senior citizens or preliterate children). We discussed the guiding principles of Universal Design as one of the ways artists can educate themselves on addressing multiple needs.
