The new edition of the Museums Guide Inclusive provides an overview of the accessibility and inclusion offerings of Austria's museums.
When the first edition of the Inclusive Museum Guide was published two years ago, around 130 museums accepted ICOM Austria's invitation and made their information on accessibility and inclusive offers available. Now, in the second, expanded edition, 160 museums are already represented and editor Doris Rothauer is rightly proud to be writing international accessibility and inclusion history with this work. A great success that shows how seriously the topic is taken by the domestic museum landscape, because the vision of a "museum for and with everyone" is one of the most important goals to be achieved worldwide.
This – and much more – was confirmed at the presentation of the freshly printed Museums Guide inclusive in the MuseumsQuartier Vienna by Bettina Leidl, Director of the MuseumsQuartier Vienna and ICOM Vice President, Johanna Schwanberg, President of ICOM Austria, Martin Essl, founder of the Essl Foundation and Zero Project, Daniele Marano, Aid Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired in Austria and Michael Brönner, Country Manager of Mastercard Austria. Under the moderation of Willy Lehmann, the event also presented best practice examples and experiences on accessibility and inclusion.
About the Museums Guide inclusive
If you were previously looking for offers on accessibility and inclusion in museums, you either had to do laborious research on the Internet or call the museum directly. Some museums have a wide range of educational offerings for people with a wide range of disabilities, while others can currently only ensure barrier-free physical accessibility for all people. The problem is that these offers are not well known among the specific target group. The information is not sufficiently conveyed via the museums' conventional communication channels. Until now, there was no uniform source of information about the specific offers of all museums and therefore no overall overview of inclusive museums. Closing this gap was the aim of the Inclusive Museum Guide, which now combines the relevant offers - well structured and barrier-free.
The guide places particular emphasis on not conducting any rankings or evaluations. Rather, the overview provides orientation in the information jungle with information that is presented in a uniform and clear manner and is divided into three categories. The information on physical accessibility ranges from barrier-free entrances to barrier-free access to all areas of the building, the availability of barrier-free toilets, tactile orientation aids, seating in the exhibition rooms and the rental of wheelchairs or walkers. The barrier-free design of information and content refers to the extent to which a wide variety of impairments are taken into account in the preparation and communication of information and content. The range here extends from easy or simple language to sign language, Braille and other tactile aids to audio and multimedia guides. The special offers, such as guided tours and workshops, are differentiated according to suitability for people with hearing, vision, speech, learning or other intellectual impairments as well as for people with dementia.
The Museums Guide inklusiv is sold via medianet Verlag and is available in the webshop, available in bookstores and Austrian museums for € 14.90. On www.museumsguide.net All information is also available in German and English, and is continually supplemented by editorial reports.
Photo credits: © medianet/APA-Fotoservice/Juhasz