Disability Access for Museums and Galleries

From 2021 to 2025, I held the position of the UK Government's Disability and Access Ambassador for Arts and Culture. During this time, I investigated ways to enhance accessibility for individuals with disabilities. I compiled my insights into the following six recommendations to make arts and culture more accessible:

1.     Opportunities for Creative Artists with Disabilities and Disabled Consumers

2.     Pathways for Disability Employment and Volunteering

3.     Customized Online and Onsite Human Communication

4.     Engagement with the Local Disabled Community (children and adults)

5.     Disabled Role Models for Future Generations

6.     Regular Promotion of Disability Arts and Culture

Access and inclusion for museums and galleries means a) physical access to buildings, b) appropriate toileting and changing facilities, c) relevant exhibition content, d) opportunities for volunteering and employment and e) community engagement and communication.

Physical Access

New-build museums and galleries should include fully inclusive access in their design, with wide aisles, flat pathways, lower counters, disabled toilets and changing facilities. This will make disabled people feel welcome and valued, particularly those with complex physical and learning needs. If this is not possible with older buildings, then authorities should clearly alert visitors to this fact in advance of their visit and provide digital alternatives so people with disabilities with limited or no mobility are not discriminated against.

When considering existing provision, a common theme from stakeholders was knowing what to expect in advance. Parents and carers are used to planning carefully for visits. They need to plan for toileting and changing, transport, parking and access. They need this information so that last minute surprises are kept to a minimum. Sudden and unexpected disruption to routines and schedules can cause anxiety and behavioural problems leading to the termination of a visit before it has even started.

Transport and Parking

Transport to museums and galleries is vital for access to public buildings. Advance notice about lifts being broken, particularly on the underground, would really help. Transport updates which specifically affect disabled people should be alerted to parents and carers so they can plan their visit in advance.

Parking is also an issue for visitors to museums and galleries. Parents and carers have reported paying more for parking than the price of admission. They want to know where they can park and how they can park. Blue badges can often be dependent on certain days, zones and other restrictions. Parking should be signposted so parents and carers can plan their visit in advance.

Toileting and Changing

Changing facilities remains the biggest issue across all public attractions in arts and culture, including museums and galleries. These should not be shared with baby changing areas but must be exclusively for people with disabilities. Appropriate changing places should be signposted so parents and carers can plan their visit in advance.

Exhibition Content

Equal access to museums and galleries should also include the history of disabled people and exhibitions by artists with disability. It is very important that disability history is forgotten - whether their struggle and discrimination or the reformers and heroes who drove equality and opportunity that shape attitudes today. Equally, disabled people need to see the work of role-model artists who look and sound like them. They must be celebrated within the ‘mainstream’ and in their own unique space.

Some museums have introduced 'Calm and Quiet' sessions or days specifically for people with autism and related issues, to feel more comfortable in noisy environments. The Natural History Museum for example has sessions specifically for people with additional needs, either where more noise may be made by visitors or equally, quiet rooms and sessions are made available.

Volunteering and Employment

Many individuals with learning disabilities would be well-suited to volunteering or employment in a museum setting. Opportunities should be explored which can provide pathways to volunteering and employment through collaborations with local schools and colleges, disability charities and social care providers. This would support a key Government aim of attracting more disabled people into work. It would also provide vital health and well being benefits for the people themselves over and above any financial income, such as reducing loneliness and isolation, life-long learning, basic skills for work and reducing their increased risk of mental health problems, dementia and becoming victims of Hate Crime.

Community Engagement and Communication

The most convenient way to signpost transport routes and disruption, parking, changing facilities, accessible exhibitions, digital alternatives and access to volunteering and employment could be via an app, website or social media support. A ‘Museum Access Plan’ would help customers with disabilities scope out their visit, thereby reducing stress and significantly enhancing their enjoyment of the visit experience. The best venues offer designated and trained members of staff to assist families and carers. This vital point of contact can provide up to-date information for each specific venue and will encourage more people with disabilities to come to the museum and more return visits. At a local level, this information could be signposted in schools, libraries, online community groups and by disability charities and organisations.

Guidance

Museums and galleries should be supported in their journey towards expected standards of access and inclusion. There is good practice at some venues, but the picture locally is very mixed. New venues are better than older venues, but changing places are still not compulsory in new public buildings. The National Trust has notably improved access over the past 12 years. Despite typically operating in historic buildings, users reported better lifts and encouraging access to digital alternatives when certain parts of museums and galleries are unavoidably inaccessible. Higher expectations could take the form of ‘Disability Access Good Practice’. Specifically relating to the aspects covered in this summary, the guidance would support museum and gallery policy, training, monitoring and reporting, strategic planning and accreditation. Museums and galleries that cannot make progress themselves in this specific area of public service should be directed to available support from a number of sources, ranging from other local museums and galleries in their region to advice from the Disability and Access Ambassador for Arts and Culture at a national level.

David Stanley BEM 17/01/2022