Flowers at your Fingertips

By Heather Poling

In mid-August, Guest Services Supervisor Quinn Kaufell received a call from a patron looking for a guided tour, not an unusual request as it is part of Quinn’s job to book and facilitate tours. In this case, the guest could only visit on Labor Day and all the volunteers who usually lead the tours already had the day off. During their conversation about her visit, the guest, Angelina, disclosed that she was blind. This fact presented an accessibility challenge that Quinn decided to take on with enthusiasm! Immediately, Quinn started planning how to enhance the tour so it would be exciting and engaging for Angelina.

After consulting with Volunteer Coordinator Deb Knorr, Quinn ended up with ten pages of notes to verbally guide Angelina through the Conservatory. They quickly realized that a verbal description was exciting but limited, which led them to look for ways to enhance Angelina’s experience. Quinn took inspiration from a social media creator who is legally blind. He shared a video of a touch tour he took at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City.  The Met offers touch tours for vision impaired quests, giving them permission to touch certain exhibits. For example, there a statue that was too large for the guest to touch so they had a touch board with a raised outline of the statue. Quinn began researching and creating their own version of a touch tour for Angelina. They reviewed the tour and consulted the horticulture team about plants that could be touched, quickly realizing that there were many exciting aspects of the show that would be inaccessible. Many plants were unavailable to touch due to being out of reach, too delicate or even dangerous.  

Quinn’s favorite hobbies are arts and crafts and research so creating their own touch boards became a passion project. After some brainstorming, they landed on using puffy paint to create simple raised pictures. Feeling that the boards could be better, Quinn enlisted the help of Science Education Program Manager Maria Wheeler since they were already working together planning the sensory inclusive hours Phipps offer during each flower show. They started experimenting with different media, mixing paints and incorporating different textures to give a more complete impression of the plants. On the touch board for the Cacao tree, for example, the bark is ridged, the leaves are raised and the cocoa pods have added glitter for a rough texture to distinguish the fruit. Quinn even added labels on some of the boards in Braille!

Quinn says that their stepfather had some mobility issues when they were growing up, which made them think about accessibility and how in some public spaces access is limited. This awareness fueled their passion to add to Phipps accessibility. Angelina loved the enhanced tour; she even posted on her social media how much they appreciated all the effort and attention that Quinn had put into creating it! Quinn expressed how the experience of creating the touch tour enabled them to meet and collaborate with other Phipps employees, giving them a unique way to connect with coworkers. Quinn was able to enlist help from volunteers, horticulture and education to make their vision a reality making this endeavor a major team effort. Phipps is currently exploring adding a touch tour in the future to continuously make the Conservatory more accessible to all. We are grateful to Quinn and all the Phipps staff who were inspired to create this experience for our guests!