Seventeenth International Conference on the Inclusive Museum

Abstract

Museums around the world are working to create more inclusive spaces, both within traditional spaces and through digital presence online, within which multiple voices and positionalities are recognized, embraced, and celebrated. We argue that, within museums and heritage, and society more broadly, the ableist notion of ‘access’ is undermining the level of inclusion that disabled visitors can hope for. This interactive session will radically re-think the purpose and nature of audio description (AD) within museums. It will do this by drawing on the work that is being carried out within the W-ICAD project (Workshop for Co-created Audio Description), a joint UK-US project, working across 12 museums in the UK and the US, to transform the way in which museums think about, create and implement audio description. A short theoretical introduction will both challenge the assumption that ‘sighted’ visitors can automatically access museum collections, and will explain the benefits of AD for sighted visitors. It will also challenge traditionally AD, by questioning the validity of the ‘objective’ voice and the assumption the ‘sighted’ experience should be translated for the benefit of blind or sighted people. In small groups, the workshop participants will then co-create audio description through conversation. This will be followed by small group discussions and whole group discussion about what their experiences were, and what the implications are for inclusive audio descriptive interpretation within museums.