Access for All
DIS–CO: A Template for Engaging People with Disabilities as Experts for the Benefit of All in Museums and Cultural Spaces
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Fran Osborne
What can museums and their audiences learn from working with cultural experts who also have disabilities? This paper describes the range of cultural, intellectual, and aesthetic benefits that become possible when re-thinking access for people with disabilities in the museum space. Case studies of projects and exhibitions from the San Francisco Bay Area (home of the Independent Living Movement) detail the interpretive opportunities that become available when museum staff co-create with the disability community. From low-tech, low-cost innovative elements within exhibitions to the benefits of large-print labels for all visitors in museums, the paper outlines possible approaches to developing innovative exhibition, designing robust programs, and expanding participation. With a focus on the social model of disability rather than the predominantly negative medical model, concrete steps for building trust and establishing long-term relationships are shared. In conclusion, an argument is made for museums to go beyond legal regulations and minimum compliance approaches to disability. People with disabilities are great collaborators and have enhanced problem-solving skills and experience by virtue of the often hostile physical environment they live in. They must be engaged as an important audience, often situated at the intersection of social justice issues of race, gender, and economic equity. The paper concludes with an argument for every museum to employ a person with a disability in the role of access coordinator, as well as the appointment of people with disabilities to museum board and senior staff positions.
Users with Different Abilities as Co-designers for Inclusion
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Monica Landoni
We describe how we involved two different groups of users with mild cognitive disabilities to be part of our design team along with experts in special needs education. Our aim was to design technological solutions to provide museum visitors with rewarding and memorable experiences even if, for any reason, the traditional clues available in a museum were not accessible and/or did not make sense to them. By combining observations in situ, focus groups, and reflections stimulated by photos and memory-triggering narratives, we collected a number of interesting anecdotes to drive ideation and pave the way to early prototyping. We describe a brief study where informative material was prepared in a suitable form to cater to visitors’ abilities. This was then administered by educators in order to train visitors, ahead of their tour of a specific exhibition. The effect that this had in terms of participation and its implication on the design of new technological solutions is discussed. We also analyse the costs and benefits of involving users with different abilities as co-designers and argue how an ability driven approach can help producing more accessible and effective technological solutions for all.
Museum E!: On Contemporary Art, Care, and Dementia
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Piet Van Hecke
What happens when a museum of contemporary art activates its collection and artists in a residential care centre for people with dementia? Museum E! focuses on the rich emotional and intellectual experiences that artworks can elicit and is based on the power of contemporary art to bring people closer together and to stimulate interaction, even when people are no longer able to physically visit the museum. With Museum E!, M HKA investigates how both caregivers, museum staff, and artists can support the ways in which a person with dementia experiences him- or herself, and how they can inspire and challenge each other through dialogue, co-creation, and equality. In a participatory process, residents, employees, and families choose which work from the M HKA collection temporarily moves to the WZC. In this unique collaboration, M HKA acts as much more than a lender. We also share expertise, methodologies, and even our staff with WZC Immaculata. In consultation with M HKA WZC, Immaculata invites an artist for a period of six months, for a residence in the residential care centre. The artist works together with seniors in need of care and their families from an on-site studio. M HKA wants to use this project to shape its role as an active social actor, to put into practice a "Pedagogy of the Encounter," which abandons the idea of education as merely transferring knowledge in one direction, and at the same time to engage in self-reflection and institutional criticism.
Museums in Greece: Social Inclusion and Accessibility
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eugenia Mari
The research investigates the museum sector in Greece and in particular the social inclusion and accessibility for people with disabilities. To obtain relevant information, I conducted a desk online research and reviewed relevant bibliographies. Also, I conducted semi-structured interviews, in person and by telephone, with ten Greek museum professionals aged between 30-45 years. The participants highlighted issues relevant to the difficulties the museum faces nowadays in Greece and what motives can be given to organizations in order to improve the participation of people with disabilities, particularly those with visual impairments.
