Abstract
Museums have obligations to provide accessibility for visitors with disabilities, but many museums still offer limited physical accommodations and services for people with visual impairment or blindness (PVIB). This integrative review aimed to synthesize the museum experiences of PVIB to improve the quality of museum services offered to them. The review followed Whittemore and Knafl’s methodology and PRISMA guidelines, and it included a search of Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, APA PsycINFO, and MEDLINE via PubMed as well as a manual search for additional articles on Google Scholar with no date restrictions. Of 690 articles retrieved, 9 meeting the eligibility criteria were included in the review. In a quality appraisal, 8 qualitative studies were scored as satisfactory with an average score of 8/10, meeting most appraisal criteria of the 10-item Critical Appraisal Skills Programme for Qualitative Research checklist. A single mixed-method study received 3/5 points using the 5-item mixed-method study appraisal portion of the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Among the studies, findings regarding PVIB’s museum experiences were classified into 4 themes: (1) museum staff assistance is important but insufficient; (2) websites and interior design are inadequate for PVIB due to limitations of sighted perspectives; (3) touchable exhibits are desired; and (4) the museum is a place to feel a sense of inclusion and engagement. Preliminary findings suggest that museums need to become more inclusive and accessible for PVIB by improving guiding services and providing enhanced participatory exhibitions based on PVIB’s voiced needs and better understanding of their disabilities.
Presenters
Min Young JungResearch Assistant, Department of Biobehavioral Nursing Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, Illinois, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
KEYWORDS
Museums, Visually Impaired Persons, Blindness, Review
