Blind Attorney Travels to Greece to Learn How Art Can Become Accessible to the Disabled

Oakland County Disability Briefs
By JERRY WOLFFE
Published: Thursday, August 11, 2011

BIRMINGHAM

Attorney Richard Bernstein, who is blind, just returned from a two-week visit to Greece where he visited the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

Bernstein, who lives in Birmingham and has a law practice in Farmington Hills, is a member of the board of Art Beyond Sight of New York. The organization was created to find ways to make art more accessible and understandable to those with sensory or mobility disabilities, according to Elizabeth Axel, founder and executive director of the non-profit.

While in Greece, Bernstein visited the Athens museum with a guide and was able to touch any of the 3,000-year-old statues or sculptures in the museum. “The museum places huge emphasis on giving someone who is blind the opportunity to learn about art,” said Bernstein. He said it is the hope that art museums in the United States will find more effective ways to make art accessible to the blind and disabled. “We hope to adopt practices we learned of overseas that allow those of us with sensory impairments to experiene the full beauty and magnificence of art,” said Bernstein. “Never in my life have I been to a museum where you can touch artifacts that are from 3,000 years ago. Some of these were priceless. It was an experience of a lifetime and we want more blind people to experience what art is really about,” Bernstein said.

Art Beyond Sight’s goal is to bring art and culture to everyone. It works with museums throughout the nation to make artworks accessible to the disabled. These museums include the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, El Museo del Barrio, Whitney Museum of American Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, Guggenheim, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Miami Art Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum in England and Musee du Louvre in France.