Enhance the quality of all of your customer service initiatives
In addition to being a powerful (yet simple and inexpensive!) first step in making your cultural organization more accessible, disability awareness training for your staff will introduce themes and instill skills that will enhance the quality of all of your customer service initiatives. In diminishing stigmas that you and/or your staff might have about visitors with disabilities, staff training can help organizations get past the shyness that often prevents us from extending a warm welcome.
Representatives from organizations of all scales (from storefront theaters and galleries to large institutions) are encouraged to join us for an interactive “train the trainer” workshop, which will include a panel of visitors with disabilities who discuss their own (non-scolding) positive and negative experiences in cultural spaces. Handouts and other materials that you can adapt for your organization will be shared.
Facilitators: Risa Rifkind, Open Doors Organization, and Rachel Arfa, Equip for Equality
Panel Members: Eric Lipp of Open Doors Organization, Lynn Walsh of Chicago Children’s Museum, Jacqueline Russell, Chicago Children’s Theatre and Kris Nesbitt of the Shedd Aquarium.