Ottawa: Part 2
Sorry - I never sent part two of Ottawa!
It went beautifully. Seriously, I could not have asked for more. One person dropped out at the last minute, but one person who hadn't confirmed the new dates showed up after all, so I had five people.
Obviously I cannot share any photos of the participants, but I have a few from our walk around the museum.
The focus group could've gone on for more than its allotted 90 minutes, but the museum was closing, I was tired, and my camera batteries had already died (both the originals and the backups). The discussions were fascinating though, with participants feeding off each other's ideas just as I had hoped. I took a ton of notes, which I have no idea how to process, but that'll presumably become more of my focus after the bulk of my fieldwork is done.
I think my favorite comment from one of the participants was this, which I am paraphrasing:
Why do I have to pay full price to get into a museum I don't have full access to?
In countries where disabled people register with the government, such as France and Japan, admission to museums is frequently reduced or free. Some museums in the US, such as the Whitney, offer a discount to disabled visitors, but many do not, because there is no way to "prove" someone is disabled (and we can't have people lying to get museum admission for free, of course). But the question remains: why does a disabled visitor have to pay full price for something they don't have access to?
More to come in the next week or two, as I prepare to leave on the Grand Fieldwork World Tour on December 15!