Frank Lloyd Wright Trust makes architecture accessible to all
by Beth
Guess who spent a Saturday afternoon last year playing the very same piano architect Frank Lloyd Wright practiced on 100+ years ago?
Me!
The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust was one of 31 cultural organizations that partnered with Chicago’s ADA 25 for 25 Cultural Access Project last year. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 2015, the trust offered special ASL and touch-tours of its historic sites.
The goal of the 25 for 25 Project was to help at least 25 cultural organizations in Chicago commit to improving accessibility for visitors with disabilities in 2015 in some concrete way, and then put plans in place to continue to take steps to improve accessibility after the 2015 anniversary year.
The success of last year’s tours motivated the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust to continue offering accessible programming, and last week Laura Dodd, the trust’s Director of Operations and Guest Experience, emailed me and forwarded a thank-you letter she’d just received from an exchange student from Poland who is blind and got to tour some pretty special houses. “I want to share a proud moment,” Laura said, and I was glad she did.
Monica also visited Robie House in Chicago — in addition to taking the Oak Park tour.
Here’s the back story: Monika Dubiel had contacted Laura after completing a semester at University of North Carolina. She’d be visiting friends of her parents in Oak Park, Illinois when the Wright Plus house walk (an annual event where private home owners open their homes to visitors) would be going on and wanted to know if there might be some way she could take in the house tours, too.
Laura told me that in the past she wouldn’t have been able to make this kind of accommodation with only a weeks notice — or even a month’s notice. “But with all the things I learned {from 25 for 25} and the confidence I have gained, we easily said yes to her request.” I was so moved by the thank you note Monica wrote to Laura afterward that I contacted the young woman directly to ask permission to share her note with you Easterseals blog readers. Here it is:
Dear Laura,
I write to you to thank you for the marvelous opportunity that you
gave me to enjoy the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright and his friends. The house walk this past Saturday was an amazing and unforgettable experience for me.I especially would like to say thank you to the trainee who helped us all day by telling us about the places we were visiting. She spent the whole day navigating us from house to house and dealing with house captains private tours. Also, all the volunteers in the houses were very nice and open minded.
In some houses, I could touch whatever I wanted because the owners were there and they gave their personal permission. It was incredible to feel all the furniture and decorations.
I’m so glad that I could do that. You can’t imagine how grateful I am.
I also would like to ask about visiting the Frank Lloyd Wright House and Studio and the Robie House. We talked about me coming this coming Saturday, but it turns out that I will be in Hyde Park on Thursday, next to Robbie House. So I would like to ask if I can visit it on Thursday.
I hope you have a good day.
Best regards,
Monika Dubiel
Monica did indeed get a chance to visit both the Robie House and the Frank Lloyd Wright House and Studio. I’m not sure she got to play Wright’s piano, but I’m confident she enjoyed those two touch tours as much as I did when they debuted last year. Thank you, Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, for continuing to make architecture accessible to all.
Monica is off to Washington D.C. now to do an internship at the Polish embassy, where she’ll probably know more about Frank Lloyd Wright than anyone else working there. zpiecznej podróży!