Captioning and Other Accommodations During my Trip to Washington DC

I took a break from paper reviewing to be in Washington DC for a few days. This marked my first time being in the city, and it’s been a pleasure to tour arguably the most important one of our country. My visit coincided with the July 4 weekend, so there was a lot of patriotism on display. Among my itinerary in Washington DC was Capitol Hill and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Both are government-controlled entities, which means that admission is free (because we pay for it with our taxes¹) and that they are expected to provide reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities.

Just to be clear, I don’t want to suggest that the private sector doesn’t do a good job providing accommodations. I do, however, believe that government agencies might be slightly, slightly more sensitive for the need to provide disability-related accommodations. After all, wouldn’t it be an embarrassment if they failed to follow the Americans with Disabilities Act?

Not having done much planning in advance (thank you, paper reviewing!) I didn’t know what to expect with regards to accommodations. Fortunately, my Capitol Hill visit turned out quite well. Despite not having a reservation, I was able to participate in a guided tour of the building. This was split in two parts. The first was a brief introductory video which described our nation’s remarkable history in 10-15 minutes. Fortunately, it had open captioning, so I was able to understand it.

The second part was the actual building tour. There were so many people that the guides split us up into five groups, each with our own guide. What was interesting, though, was that we were all provided headsets so that we could hear our tour guide speaking in his microphone (and only our tour guide, not the others). This worked out well when we were in crowded areas with several tour guides talking at once. For me, of course, I wouldn’t have benefited much from the headsets. Fortunately, after inquiring, I got a T-Coil necklace, and wow, that really amplified my guide’s voice! It was even louder than what I’m used to with FM systems, and on top of it all, there was no static. As a result, I understood most of what my guide said throughout the tour. Speaking of the actual tour, it was a nice experience looking inside Capitol Hill; we passed by Speaker Paul Ryan’s office, though we obviously didn’t see the Speaker himself. We didn’t get to explore much of the building, unfortunately, and there is still substantial construction going on, obscuring much of the inner Capitol Hill dome. Perhaps later I can try and get a better tour by submitting my name in the lottery for the tours arranged by the California Representatives or Senators? Nonetheless, it was still a good experience for me and I was happy with the tour and the accommodations.

I had a different experience at the Smithsonian Museum. After touring some of the ground floor exhibits, I paid a ticket for one of their “featured films”. I first asked for the standard (non-IMAX) film that was closest to starting, but after I asked, the cashier told me it did not have captions, and she recommended I instead watch A Beautiful Planet, offered in IMAX. Once the doors opened to enter the theater, I lined up with everyone to take our 3D glasses. I found my way into a good seat in the center of the auditorium, and … there were no captions. IMAX films are quite loud, but even so, I could not make out the conversations among the astronauts in the film. I actually fell asleep about ten minutes into it out of boredom, and woke up at the end of the film. I was a bit disappointed that an IMAX film causes me to nap rather than watch a movie (and no, I didn’t even turn off my hearing aids). I wonder: should I have asked for more details on the captioning? I don’t recall the exact words I uttered, but it’s true that I could always have been more specific with my wording. Or was I supposed to get different 3D glasses, kind of like how I got a different kind of “headset” for the tour guide? I wouldn’t be surprised if they had closed captioning glasses. Or now that I think about it, did I simply mishear the person who I asked about this?

Lesson learned: I need to ask more questions, and to plan ahead for these once-in-a-few-years visits.