The author and editor of the MuseumsGuide inclusive, Doris Rothauer, on the importance, opportunities and challenges of an inclusive museum as well as the different approaches in dealing with the topic.
The right to art and culture
During the Corona pandemic, the closure of cultural institutions has made us all experience what we are missing when we cannot enjoy art and culture, when we do not have access to it: we feel a lack of inspiration, creativity, joy, happiness and hope. We become anxious, insecure, hopeless and even depressed.
Art and culture are essential pillars of social development and cultural participation is a fundamental part of the human experience. That is why access to art and culture is so important for everyone, and why no one should be excluded.
This principle can already be found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948: “Everyone has the right to participate freely in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.”
However, in reality, equal participation is made more difficult for people with disabilities. They are confronted with physical barriers and experience social, intellectual or communication limitations that make it difficult for them to access content and information.
At the same time, many things have changed for the better in recent years, and increasingly in the wake of the experiences surrounding the Corona crisis. The question of the social relevance of cultural institutions, and thus also of museums, which was raised during the Corona-related closure, has led to a process of reflection. Topics such as sustainability, diversity and inclusion have come into focus.
Good to know
But what exactly are we talking about? What is an inclusive museum?
The unrestricted and equal access to art and culture is described with the terms “accessibility” and “inclusion”.
Accessibility means the extensive removal or avoidance of barriers, be they physical, mental, social or intercultural. Inclusion goes a step further and means participation for all People, regardless of gender, age, origin, religion, education or individual disabilities.
The legal basis for this was created in Austria with the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2008 and with the Federal Disability Equality Act 2006, which has been fully in force since 2016 after a 10-year transition period.
Being a barrier-free and inclusive museum affects many areas and tasks of museum work, from structural accessibility to exhibition design and service offerings to communication and mediation.
In addition, there are different needs depending on the type of restriction, which should be considered as closely and interrelated as possible.
- For people with reduced mobility, for example, it is about barrier-free access using ramps and lifts, appropriate passage widths and handle heights, smooth subfloors, wheelchair access under desks and display cases, disabled parking spaces and disabled toilets.
- Hearing-impaired people need a visual representation of information, for example in sign language, or inductive hearing systems.
- For people with visual impairments, orientation aids that use strong contrasts and tactile aids should be provided, as well as other forms of description and communication that include not only facts but also moods.
- In cases of intellectual barriers and learning disabilities, information and texts in so-called easy language are helpful; that is, short and simple, without compound nouns and without foreign words.
challenges and opportunities
Implementing the various inclusive measures and offers requires resources and expertise that are not always available and can often only be created step by step. Many museums therefore initially concentrate on one target group and expand their expertise and offerings there.
And, if inclusive approaches and accessibility are consistently considered and planned into all activities from the outset, they do not necessarily have to be more expensive or difficult.
A holistic approach means, of course, that inclusion is shared and internalized as a value and attitude among all employees. Many disability associations and social institutions offer awareness training as well as skills training that create an understanding of how to deal with people with disabilities and impart methodological or professional competence. In this way, the specific needs of the target groups can be better understood and recorded. Cooperations also serve to jointly develop tailor-made offers and innovative new formats. Volkshilfe Österreich, Caritas, the Austrian Aid Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired are just a few of the institutions that regularly work with museums.
The participatory approach and the path of cooperation not only enables the development of inclusive offers, but also follows a basic premise of people with disabilities: Nothing about us without us. People with disabilities want to be included; self-determination is an essential element of their self-image.
Mediation services go one step further and not only for but also from People with disabilities are offered. This means, for example, employing people with disabilities as art mediators, thus giving them a new role. Interestingly, experience in Germany has shown that these offers are particularly well received by people without disabilities. The way in which they access art creates new perspectives, not least because the mediation is less fact-oriented, but allows room for emotions.
A similar approach is behind target group-specific tours and offers that are aimed at “people with and without disabilities”. Inclusive offers that are not exclusive. That should be the basic understanding of an inclusive museum.
Self-determined enjoyment of art through new technologies
A range of technological tools supports inclusive mediation work and enables self-determined access to art and culture, independent of mediation by trained staff.
For example, hand-crafted tactile reliefs that recreate exhibition objects that can be touched have long been in use. An Austrian research institute, the VRVis Center for Virtual Reality and Visualization, is leading the development of the latest computer-generated reliefs.
Compared to hand-crafted reliefs, the computer enables exact reproduction and reproducible results. In the case of paintings, which pose a particular challenge, the image information is translated into a three-dimensional impression that makes all levels of depth perception, such as those created by the brain when seeing, tangible. Originally designed for people with visual impairments, all visitors can benefit from tactile perception, especially children or people with cognitive impairments.
Digitalization now supports a variety of technological tools, such as apps or interactive multimedia guides, which take into account a wide range of needs. The range of information channels and perception options is large: audio tours and descriptions, representations as sounds, descriptions in sign language and in easy language, background information and much more.