ABOVE: King Tut’s death mask, part of a traveling exhibition now showing in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Some visitors to the exhibit are suing because they say it doesn’t meet disability requirements.

If you are using a screen reader to read this, then you are one of millions of people out there with significantly impaired vision. This being a blog mostly dedicated to visual art, we must admit that we’ve never really spent much time worrying whether you can see the pictures that accompany the text, although to be fair, we should. Not being able to see art doesn’t in the end have much to do with one’s interest in art either way. A helpful reminder of this appeared in the Miami Herald yesterday, in a story about three blind visitors to the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale’s current King Tut exhibit who are now suing the museum for making inadequate concessions for visitors with disabilities.

We’re interested to learn, for instance, that the audio tour of the exhibit provided for the visually impaired covered only 20 or so items out of the 130 on display, and that the museum keeps no replicas of artifacts on hand to allow blind patrons to get a feel for them. The Met, apparently, has touch tours available for the visually impaired. Accessibility is a huge issue for publicly funded institutions like museums, where the public generally have a higher level of expectation for specialized services. Looks like the MOAFL is getting a an up-close-and-personal reminder of that fact.

LINK: Miami Herald > Disabled sue over access to Tut show