Going to Museums with Good Karma Apps

Did you know that many amazing museums offer sensory/autism friendly days and hours? Did you also know that museums offer online guides you can view prior to your visit with your students or children? 

The popular MET (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) in New York City offers the most amazing programs and services for visitors with disabilities.

Find the list here:
http://www.metmuseum.org/learn/visitors-with-disabilities

They offer social narratives and a tour visual check list for those with developmental and learning difficulties and for those with autism. We have taken our First Then Visual Schedule HD (FTVS HD) and Scene Speak app and incorporated The Met information into Visual schedules and social stories. 

With FTVS HD we made a visual schedule of the trip. Starting with a picture of the outside and entrance. Moving through to the coat check and ticketing process. Showing the admission sticker and where to place on clothing. Then we move into the tour. Here you can place the actual pictures of the exhibits or move over to a social story with Scene Speak. 
Breaks, lunch and restroom breaks can be placed into the schedule as needed. An event timer can be set to offer the student a count down of time spent at the location. You can also set individual event timers, but you may want to set a entire schedule timer incase of delay. 

link to on The MET site with images:
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http://www.metmuseum.org/events/programs/access/visitors-with-developmental-and-learning-disabilities/for-visitors-with-autism-spectrum-disorders

Use actual images whenever possible. That way when your schedule user gets to the location the images will match the actual locations. You can add as many steps as needed with FTVS HD (for idevices and android) and view in five different formats.

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add as many details as possible. Adding a photo of the museum security officer is a great reference incase your student get separated from the group.

Sometimes alternate entrances can be useful. You can list them in your schedule.

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A timer can be set for the entire stay at the museum.

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Scene Speak at The MET 

​Using Scene Speak you can make your own virtual tour book. The MET provides actual images of the types of art you will be seeing on their website.  (link below). 
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http://www.metmuseum.org/-/media/Files/Events/Programs/Progs%20for%20Visitors%20with%20Disabilities/My%20Met%20Tour.pdf

I took those images and made a museum social story with text and recorded audio. I also made "hotspots" on images. You can make those "hotspots" into a fun game of guess the statue/painting.   note : You can add "hotspots" on the fly. 

The best part about using a social story is you can watch prior, during and after your visit.

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Make as many pages as you would like in your book

Add text and audio to any page

In Play mode you can listen to your recorded audio.

Add as many "hotspots" to any page. You can name each hotspot and record audio.

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How wonderful that more and more places are making accommodations to include everyone. If you know a place, like The MET, that welcomes kids and adults with a range of abilities and learning styles, let us know. We are more than happy to help any museum offer visual schedules and tools to make the art experience fun and educational. Contact us @ [email protected] 
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