Museum gets handicap upgrades for Christmas

Visitors to the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda who have a physical handicap are benefitting from the recent donation of a wheelchair street-access ramp at its Long Street entrance. Michele Henry, museum curator, said the Carnival Divas Mas Troupe fulfilled the request this December and soon after a maintenance crew from Public Works installed the ramp which can hold up to 800 pounds. “
Not only our visitors but even the schools for persons who are differentlyabled, as they say, can now access us without us having to bring out some blocks of wood and push a wheelchair up,” she explained. Henry says she made a request to the women behind Carnival Divas sometime last year, as the property was in need of an alternative that is more convenient and safe than the blocks of wood.
She said that visitors can move “quite comfortably” on the museum’s main floor because of an installed concrete ramp that has been in use for some time which allows them access through the main door. The new portable streetaccess ramp has been certified safe according to Henry. She added, “any unaccompanied and accompanied scooter-user can use our ramp and even persons with a cane can walk up the ramp quite comfortably and safely.”
Henry also revealed that the local museum has received a commitment, from a visitor who accessed this new ramp, to donate a chair lift so that persons with physical handicap can access the second floor. This she said, comes at an opportune time as consideration is being given to expansion of the museum that would include upgrades to the second floor.
“They have said send the specifications for us and after we can have someone look at it to see whether we can have it done…that is a Christmas gift to us,” Henry said. According to her, once the property meets the building specifications the chair lift will be installed.