If you were previously looking for offers on accessibility and inclusion in museums, you had to do laborious research on the Internet or call the museum directly. That is now over. With the new inclusive museum guide, Austria is not only doing pioneering work, but is also providing an overview of the offers on accessibility and inclusion in museums for the first time.
Editor Doris Rothauer is proud to write international accessibility and inclusion history with this work. As was evident at the presentation on March 7, 2023 in the Libelle in the MuseumsQuartier Vienna. The Museums Guide inclusive lists the wide range of offerings of Austrian museums. Particular emphasis was placed on not conducting any rankings or evaluations. Rather, this overview provides orientation in the information jungle for the first time and provides information on which museums implement which offerings.
These offers range from barrier-free entrance, reduced admission, barrier-free reception, the availability of barrier-free toilets, tactile orientation aids, wheelchair or walker rental options or inductive hearing systems, permission to bring assistance dogs and the museum's barrier-free website. Special offers, such as guided tours and workshops, are also differentiated according to suitability for people with visual impairments, people with hearing impairments or people with dementia. Offers in easy or simple language, audio guides, multimedia guides or listening stations supplement the information.
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 different search criteria. Museumsguide.net is continually updated with current information. The guide and the website are of course designed to be barrier-free and are available in a version suitable for mobile phones.
At the presentation of the freshly printed Museums Guide inclusive in 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. The current offers for accessibility and inclusion were discussed under the moderation of Willy Lehmann.
The Museums Guide inclusive 2023 is published by medianet Verlag. It is available On-line, in well-stocked bookstores, in museum shops in Austrian museums and, through cooperation with Monopolverwaltung GmbH, in Austrian tobacco shops. The sales price of 9.90 euros is intended to demonstrate a form of "economic accessibility" here too.
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 here We would also be happy to provide you with the detailed version available for review.