Previously, searching for accessibility and inclusion options in museums required laborious online research or a direct call to the museum. This is now a thing of the past. With the new Inclusive Museums Guide, Austria is not only doing pioneering work, but is also providing the first overview of museums' accessibility and inclusion options.
Editor Doris Rothauer is proud to be making international accessibility and inclusion history with this work. This was evident at the presentation on March 7, 2023, at the Libelle in the MuseumsQuartier Vienna. The Museums Guide Inclusive lists the wide range of offerings offered by Austrian museums. Particular emphasis was placed on not conducting rankings or evaluations. Rather, this overview provides, for the first time, orientation in the information jungle and reveals which museums implement which offerings.
These services range from barrier-free entrance, reduced admission, an accessible reception, the availability of accessible restrooms, tactile orientation aids, wheelchair or walker rentals, inductive loop listening systems, assistance dogs, and the museum's accessible website. Special offerings, such as guided tours and workshops, are also differentiated according to suitability for people with visual impairments, hearing impairments, or dementia. Information is supplemented by offerings in plain or simple language, audio guides, multimedia guides, and listening stations.
In addition, this website, which you are currently on, also offers the possibility to find the right museum for your individual form of disability using various search criteria. Museumsguide.net is continuously updated with the latest information. The guide and website are, of course, barrier-free and available in a mobile-friendly version.
At the launch of the freshly printed Museums Guide inclusive at the MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Bettina Leidl, ICOM Vice President and Director of the MuseumsQuartier Vienna; Johanna Schwanberg, President of ICOM Austria; Martin Essl, founder of the Essl Foundation and Zero Project; Klaus Höckner, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the Austrian Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired; and Markus Raffer, CSR and Inclusion Officer at Monopolverwaltung GmbH, also spoke. Moderated by Willy Lehmann, the current offerings for accessibility and inclusion were discussed.
The Museums Guide inclusive 2023 is published by medianet Verlag and is available On-line, in well-stocked bookstores, in museum shops of Austrian museums, and through the cooperation with Monopolverwaltung GmbH in Austrian tobacco shops. The retail price of €9.90 is intended to demonstrate a form of "economic accessibility" here as well.
More photos of the presentation of the Museum Guide inclusive on March 7, 2023 can be found here. For the short version of the video, click here We would also be pleased to provide you with the detailed version available for review.