Dear Chicago Museum of Science & Industry,
I absolutely love your museum, I’ve been a regular visitor since moving to Chicago in 1999. The MSI is world-class, and I’m always proud to take visiting friends and family there.
Like all of us, as I’ve aged, my physical abilites have changed. For me, this has meant my knees have degenerated (I’m having surgery for knee replacement on both knees this winter). So I require a scooter/wheelchair when visiting places where I might potentially have to walk long distances.
I’m sure you’re fully aware of how HUGE the MSI campus is, covering some 400,000 square feet of exhibit space.
While MSI is relatively ADA-friendly, it is NOT fully ADA-friendly. In fact, the musuem can be inhibitive and occassionally challenging to visit for wheelchair users/those with ADA needs/requirements.
People with ADA needs do not always have, or need to have, a secondary person with them in order to get out and enjoy the world and all that it has to offer. To assume that anybody with ADA needs will automatically have somebody with them is a poor assumption against the abilities of disabled people.
The first thing starts with a visitor’s ability to borrow a wheelchair. You do have some wheelchairs available, but only one (1) is available for larger people/”persons of size” or people who might need a wider wheelchair for whatever reason. (And, in fact, your website “recommends” people reserve a wheelchair “at least a week prior to your visit”, suggesting that there may not be enough to go around for a museum that sees over 1.5 million visitors per year.)
As stated, the museum is HUGE. So if you’re by yourself, want to visit the museum, and you don’t have anybody to bring along to help you with a wheelchair, well, then that is just too darn bad, unless you can manage to maneuver yourself around backwards, pushing yourself by your feet. (I’ve done this. It’s physically exhausting in a museum of your size, especially with some of the ramps to be maneuvered.)
The other large issue with the MSI and ADA-accessibility is the fact that NOT all doors in the museum have ADA buttons or automatic opening on approach – and many of those doors are quite heavy. So, for example, the time that I visited MSI on my own and managed to propel myself around (backwards) in one of your rental wheelchairs, I would have to regularly wait for somebody to help assist me with opening doors to get in/out of exhibits, or to move into other parts of the museum.
Please, please, PLEASE get several electronic mobility scooters for the MSI. They start at around $500, so surely a museum of such world-renown could afford to purchase, say, at least ten of them in order to increase accessibility and enjoyment to those visitors who need such devices.
Also please make sure that EVERY doorway that visitors might use has the ability to be self-opened if a wheelchair visitor is on their own. Even if a wheelchair/scooter user is not on their own, their fellow friends/family/caretaker may not be able to easily open the door AND maneuver the wheelchair through the door, especially if the doors are not designed to stay open on their own for a certain amount of time to allow such a thing.
As I’ve stated previously, I love the MSI, and I do enjoy visiting. But the limitations one faces as an ADA visitor cuts down on the enjoyment of going to the MSI. I hope you will improve these things very soon.
THE WANDERBROAD 
Excellent comments on ADA accessibility. Thank you.
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