Connecticut Radio Information System

Located on the east side of the mile-long historic Lebanon Green, the Lebanon Historical Society Museum & Visitors Center serves as a year-round, handicapped accessible orientation site for Lebanon’s history.

Many Revolutionary War era houses and structures surround the Lebanon Green. Three organizations – the Lebanon Historical Society, the Connecticut Sons of the American Revolution, and the Daughters of the American Revolution – collaborated on the Connecticut Revolutionary War Trail.

Two of the most prominent historic properties are the War Office (owned and operated by the Connecticut Sons of the American Revolution) and the Governor Trumbull House, and Wadsworth Stable (owned and operated by the Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution). Also adjacent to the Town Green is the Jonathan Trumbull Jr. House and the Beaumont House (owned and operated by the Lebanon Historical Society).

The Lebanon Historical Society campus includes a modern, handicapped accessible museum, relocated historic buildings, and reproduction structures. Its archives, collections and exhibit galleries include materials dating from Lebanon’s colonial and Revolutionary War period, through the mid-1900s.

CRIS Solution

XThe Lebanon Historical Society’s accessible smartphone audio tour is part of the Connecticut Revolutionary War Trail in celebration of the United States’ 250th anniversary. The goal of CRISAccess Tours is to produce audio tours that are accessible to all individuals, including those who are blind or unable to read due to other disabilities or print challenges. As studies have found that only 11 percent of individuals with disabilities visit museums because they are inaccessible, CRIS Radio’s solution is to produce an accessible audio tour – CRISAccess Tours® – through a visitor’s personal smartphone.

Generous funding from the NEAG Foundation and the Mortensen Foundation helped to make this accessible smartphone audio tour possible. The audio tour project was done in partnership with a dedicated team of historians, archivists, CRIS volunteers, museum curators, and graduate students in Central Conn. State University’s history department working with Prof. Anthony Martin.