Prologue

This story starts on the stage of the prestigious Stefaniensaal ballroom in Graz, Austria. Thursday 9 June 2016, Gala Ball of the Ecsite Annual Conference. 23:15. Sharon Ament, Chairperson of the Mariano Gago Ecsite Awards Jury, is about to reveal the winners of the Strategic Partnership awards, "recognising extraordinary collaboration between an Ecsite member and an external partner whose work together enabled them to achieve goals neither of them could have reached by themselves alone".

And the winner is… Tekniska Museet, Stockholm, Sweden! For the partnership undertaken with artist Håkan Lidbo on the interactive exhibit “Make Music with Your Whole Body".

"This project struck a chord with the Jury," declares Ament. "It is an inspiring example of co-creation for the science engagement community." The exhibit is part of MegaMind, the museum's new wing dedicated to creativity, and was co-created with children, taking into account the needs of physically impaired visitors. As Museum Directors Peter Skogh and Project Manager Åsa Lindgren step onto the stage, a video reveals the winning exhibit to the crowds. It's a big bright green interactive sculpture, inviting multiple players to create different music combinations, using their bodies as a chain to connect sensor areas spread around the piece. The created music is translated into a graphic animation shown on screens placed in the centre of the sculpture, and into a sequence of vibrations that resonate inside visitors' bodies.

 

As Ecsite's Communications and Events Manager, I'm lurking in a dark corner a few steps away from the stage. "Strange", I think to myself, watching the video with my left eye as the right one stays glued on my phone's Twitter feed. "For an accessible exhibit it looks like pretty hard work for visitors. Look at this woman using her nose to activate a sensor area".

That's precisely the point, reveals artist Håkan Lidbo when I finally get around to interviewing him in April 2017. As part of Tekniska Museet's "100% for everyone, 100% togetherness" philosophy (more on it later), iterations of the exhibit were tested with groups of disabled users. "In one of the tests, the helper of a girl who was in a wheelchair suggested that handles might make the exhibit easier for her to use. But the girl protested that she didn't want it to be easy! What fun would it be? Instead we decided to make the exhibit challenging for everyone." Building on gamification insights, Lidbo engineered an intriguing piece whose interactive principles need to be collectively uncovered. "Users with 'disabilities' actually excel at this game", explains Lidbo: "they're used to solving similar challenges in their daily lives and know how to use other people's bodies to complete actions".

"The deepest insight I gained from this project is that everyone wants a challenge. Reframing the question of 'disability' as the uneven distribution of abilities allows you to see things differently", shares Lidbo. We'll get back to his prolific work later.

Reframing the question of 'disability' as the uneven distribution of abilities

Inspired by Tekniska Museet's and Lidbo's creative spin, this article offers to take you, dear readers, on an exploration of what accessibility can mean in a museum or science centre context, beyond door width, text contrast or subtitles (for which you will find useful tips in the "practical guides" section at the end).   

On this journey, I first invite all of you to travel together for a bit, exploring general thoughts on access, disability and inclusion. In the second part of the article, your readers' paths can part and cross again: you are free to wander from case study to case study.

 

1. Please start here – opening thoughts on accessibility, inclusion and representations

When I started working on this article, I wasn't too sure if it was going to be about disability, accessibility or inclusion – what was the most useful angle for the science engagement community, I wondered? Let me clarify some definitions first with the help of some of my interviewees, and share a striking keynote second that powerfully (re)frames the question of disability and museums (and science centres, I take the liberty of adding).   

 

Are special needs so special?

"What is considered a disability is a social construct", states Robert de Kloe, Founder of the PBTconsult architectural agency specialised in access (Utrecht, The Netherlands). "This is a gliding scale. For instance, most people wearing glasses wouldn't be considered disabled. Those with hearing aids like me might be." As Nathalie Joncour, in charge of accessibility for visually impaired audiences at Universcience (Paris, France), explains: "impairment doesn't necessarily mean disability. I'm visually impaired: my eyesight is not as performant as most people's. Depending on my environment, this impairment turns into a disability ("not being able to") or not. This is what we call situational disability."

Disability: a question of context – a context until recently designed by and for a mythically standard "homo universalis"

So disability is a question of context – and that context, like pretty much everything else in our Western societies, has until recently been designed by and for a mythically standard "homo universalis". "I realised that in the architectural training we got in the 1970s-80s in The Netherlands, we were designing buildings for a hypothetical grown man measuring 1.8 m and weighing 80kg, valid and wearing good shoes - about 30 to 40% of society!" exclaims Robert.

What prevents impairment from turning into disability? Accessibility. In the context of public-receiving science engagement organisations, physical accessibility to buildings and exhibits goes hand in hand with cognitive accessibility to contents and experiences. Sometimes it means being careful not to put any barriers in users' ways and sometimes it means building extra bridges over pre-existing or hard-to-close gaps.  

"Science centres and science engagement programmes based on interactivity have a head start when it comes to accessibility: we're building our exhibits and activities from scratch (contrary to museums that have to take the needs of fragile collections into account)", enthusiastically states Marie-Laure Las-Vergnas, in charge of User quality and accessibility at Universcience. "We're starting from a rich, multisensorial material that appeals to multiple intelligences. No excuses!"

Often, state the proponents of universal design (or design for all, which is very closely related), paying attention to the needs of people with different impairments makes a building or exhibition better for all. Ramps for instance serve wheelchair users, but also those with buggies, high heels or wheeling suitcases. Subtitles make videos easier to follow in noisy environments; voice recordings of exhibition text will be a welcome cure from reading overload; "easy German" allowed me to read up on the Deutsches Hygiene Museum's exhibitions (patience!) with what was left of a pretty rusty German. Etc.

Why put in the effort, expertise and resources called for by universal design? Inclusion and diversity are part of museums' and science centres' core values. They are committed to serve all members of society, regardless of gender, age, ethnic background, physical or cognitive impairment etc. The moral imperative seems to be the most compelling one for our field. Yet, remarks Robert de Kloe, as a sector we are lagging behind amusement parks whose main motivation is simply visitor numbers. "The entertainment business clearly got what it means to provide family-friendly experiences: designing for the whole family with its canes, prams and wheelchairs, grandparents and babies included. Don’t be commercially stupid in the museum and science centre sector: don’t start by excluding 40% of potential attendees with badly designed buildings and exhibitions."

But hang on, barriers aren't only physically or cognitive: they can be cultural or socio-economic too (see for instance Seakin's and Kings' article on science capital that explains why some families might not feel welcome at the museum). Do we need to talk about inclusion then, in order to encompass all audiences whose needs and expectations might not correspond to the socially constructed norm? This is indeed what several of the organisations featured in this article do. Trizia Wells' team at Eureka (Halifax, United Kingdom) for instance work with and for audiences with physical impairments, learning difficulties and with families confronted with addiction or living in deprived areas.

 

Barrier-free AND visible

In my preliminary research I came across "Cabinet of Curiosity: How disability was kept in a box", a video archive of the keynote speech/performance that Mat Fraser gave at the Museums Association Conference in Cardiff (United Kingdom) in 2014. I found it a truly powerful, thought-provoking piece. It considerably influenced the framing of this article and the questions I put to the interviewees you'll be hearing from next. Really worth watching if you have a little time to spare – if not jump to my take-away points below.

 

In his speech, Fraser calls for a shift from "the medical model of disability" to "the social model of disability". He urges museums to do more than become barrier free, playing an active role in this transition. This, he argues, means:

• Hiring people with disabilities on your workforce

• Telling the hitherto hidden stories of people with disabilities (he mentions the pioneering "Buried in the footnotes" project in the UK)

• And also: in other contexts, showing images of disabled people not because of their disability, but as ordinary people.

Interestingly, this call for diversity in narratives, representations and workforce is on the agenda of many social groups: ethnic minorities or LGBT representatives for instance. Editorial Committee member Andrea Bandelli is preparing an article on this very topic for the July-August issue of Spokes – so we’ll wave him hello and move on without treading too much on his editorial territory. Let's proceed to case studies.

 

Pick and choose – case studies

 

Where to next?

By project / place

• Visit Experyment, Gdynia (Poland), where accessibility is a question of spot-on customer service.

• Step inside Eureka, Halifax (United Kingdom) that won awards for its incredibly user-friendly welcome of families, including those with disabled members.

• Around the world with the Dialogue Exhibitions that facilitate social inclusion of disabled, disadvantaged and elderly people on a global basis.

• Onto Heureka, the Finnish science centre, Vantaa (Finland), for "Heureka goes crazy", the first science centre exhibition on mental health.

• Off to Universcience, Paris (France), a pioneer of accessibility with an in-house audience advocate team.

• Let’s hear Tekniska Museet, Stockholm (Sweden) on their award-winning access philosophy.

• See how Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden (Germany) combined its work on the representation of disabled people with a solid accessibility framework.

• Make sure you take a look at The Euan’s Guide user-generated platform that offers "disabled access reviews, by disabled people for disabled people".

• Get the artist’s perspective with Håkan Lidbo.

 

By topic

Budgets: here and here

Creativity: here, here and here

Diverse workforce: here and here

Empowerment: here, here, here, here and here

Exhibition development: here, here, here, here, here and here

Mental health: here

Representations: here, here, here, here and here

Universal design: here, here and here

User groups: here, here, and here

Volunteering: here and here

 

Open arms

Experyment, Gdynia (Poland) & Eureka, Halifax (United Kingdom)

"Customer services are key", exclaim Hanna Milewska, Specialist, and Natalia Grzywacz, Deputy Director, when I ask them about the Experyment's (Gdynia, Poland) philosophy of accessibility. "All our staff, front or house AND behind the scenes, receive accessibility training: facilitators, but also accountants and technicians. We want all visitors to feel welcome, from their first click on our website through to their interactions with our educators on the floor." Recently redeveloped following WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines), Experyment's website offers users the possibility to change contrast and font size, and a user-friendly page "Barrier free Experyment" section with detailed accessibility information. At the welcome desk, sign language users and cashiers use an online live interpretation service to communicate.

Experyment's team can count on the backing of their municipality, whose accessibility service is at the forefront in Poland. As part of her position, Hanna collaborates with several local accessibility organisations and foundations whose members regularly provide advice and feedback on new developments.

Warm welcoming and staff training: a solid basis

Staff training and carefully orchestrated welcome are also key at Eureka, The National Children's Museum (Halifax, United Kingdom), whose incredibly user-centred approach I find thoroughly awe-inspiring. Eureka won bronze, silver and gold Access Awards from Visit England, and the 2016 Accessibility Award from the Charity Awards. Eureka's "Access information" website section is a gold mine of best practice. Detailed information for families with a disabled member is available as an accessibility guide that details everything from induction loops to changing facilities, special holiday clubs to the "Chill out room". Onsite, carers get in for free and "An Extra Pair of Hands" can be booked in advance of the visit. All staff know basic sign language, wheelchairs are available to borrow, etc, etc. A special guide for those with sensory conditions is also on hand and an engaging video sums it all up.

Why such an amazing dedication, I ask Inclusion Manager Trizia Wells? "Being a hands-on museum, we had always attracted people with impairments who found our multisensory offer appealing", she explains. "We decided to build on this pre-existing interest and opportunity and develop a more bespoke welcome for this audience. We don’t measure the number of impaired or disabled visitors, but we have stats on the number of carers who get in for free, which has risen by 85% since 2012."

Eureka also has a volunteering programme for young people with complex disabilities, run in partnership with the Next Step Trust. A cohort of volunteers join every six weeks and can be met in the café, shop and galleries on a Thursday morning. "It's important to us that these volunteers are visible: they send an important message", states Trizia."We also make sure that visibly disabled visitors are present on our promotional materials and on our website."

 

Eyes, ears, hearts

Dialogue Social Enterprise

In Dialogue in the Dark visitors are led by blind guides in small groups through a specially constructed and totally darkened exhibition, where sounds, sensations, and textures convey the characteristics of environments such as a park, a city street, or a bar. In the dark, daily routines become new experiences. A reversal of roles is created: sighted people are torn from the familiar, losing the sense they rely on most – their sight. Blind people guide them, providing security and a sense of orientation while transmitting a world without pictures. The blind and partially sighted guides open the visitors’ eyes in the dark to show them that a world without sight is not poorer, just different. – this is how the experience of attending a "Dialogue with the Dark" exhibition is described on the Dialogue Social Enterprise website.  

The first Dialogue in the Dark exhibition was opened by social entrepreneur Andreas Heinecke in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1988, with the ambition to "change the attitude towards blindness, and create job opportunities for those who see differently". The concept has travelled to 180 cities and 44 countries since, and now has two cousins: Dialogue in Silence, guided by deaf people; and Dialogue with Time, whose facilitators are aged 70+.

"We work with a social franchise model," explains Andreas: venues that want to host the experience organise their own local adaptation, guided by the Hamburg-based consulting team. Most iterations turn into permanent spaces, others are hosted at science centres or museums. Dialogue Social Enterprise was founded in 2008 to give this global network a coordinating body. "Our mission is to facilitate social inclusion of disabled, disadvantaged and elderly people on a global basis, and for this we use exhibitions as catalysts for change," states Orna Cohen, Co-founder (and previously Curator at the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie in Paris).

In 2016 alone, more than 800,000 visitors participated worldwide in a Dialogue Exhibition (see all numbers here). All in all no less than 10 million visitors experienced a Dialogue on various levels, and more than 10,000 people have been employed as guides since the beginning. The concept, outlined at length in a 2017 paper by Heinecke and Cohen, is based on "Transformative Learning" as developed by American psychologist Jack Mezirow. Many visitors describe their experience in Dialogue exhibition as a deep, impactful moment. "It's particularly the case with Dialogue in the Dark," points out Orna. "There is something incredibly universal with darkness. In countries as different as Mexico and Japan, people have very similar reactions inside – while the pre- and post- experience need to be culturally adapted."

Triple impact: on visitors, on ambassador guides and on hosting organisations

"We have now hosted the three different Dialogue exhibitions," explains Mikko Myllykoski, Experience Director at Heureka, the Finnish science centre, "and "Dialogue in the Dark" was rated 4.7/5 by our visitors – our highest ever satisfaction rate." "More than 90% of visitors to the recent "Dialogue with Time" reported positive emotions, and 55% of them said they had changed their views on ageing – a pretty impressive figure when you know how hard it is to change attitudes," he underlines.

Mikko is actually writing a PhD about the impact of hosting a "Dialogue in the Dark" exhibition (when he has the time) and has interviewed several science centre and museum Directors about it. "The change is profound," he explains. "Suddenly disability is not a statistics or something 'at the margin' anymore: the guides, the ambassadors, who are your colleagues for a few months, give it a face and a voice. You understand the challenge of accessibility on a whole new level." "When we recruited guides aged 70+ for the Dialogue with Time exhibition last spring we got almost 600 applications for 30 vacancies! Some of them have stayed on as volunteers," he continues. "Similarly, I know that Experimentarium in Denmark for instance became a seriously committed equal opportunities employer after hosting a "Dialogue" exhibition, hiring people with cerebral palsy as front of house staff. Hosting these socially relevant exhibitions is also changing our image: stakeholders realise we are more than an educational playground for kids."

"We think that the model can be used to address a wide range of societal issues," share Orna and Andreas. "We just received three years of funding in Switzerland to develop the concept of MODI: the Museum of Diversity and Inclusion. We are only at concept stage: our ambition is to build a museum of the 21st century. One of the ideas we want to explore further is how to leverage the experience and make visitors ambassadors – or even activists."

 

Mind openers

Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre, Vantaa (Finland)

"At first I wanted to make an exhibition about madness," remembers Heidi Rosenström, Exhibition Producer at Heureka, the Finnish Science Centre. "I started preliminary research and on the exact same day I went to talk with a leading psychiatrist and a patients' organisation. 'Great you want to bring up the subject’,' they both told me: 'but talk about mental health and wellbeing instead of madness.' Which is indeed what we did with 'Heureka goes Crazy' that became the first-ever science centre exhibition on mental health." The project won the Association of Science Technology Centers (ASTC) Roy L. Shafer Leading Edge for Visitor Experience Award in October 2014.

 

The 650sqm show aims to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and to provide visitors with tools to take care of their mental health. A panel of a dozen "peer experts" – people who suffer(ed) from mental disorders themselves and want to play a role in explaining their conditions – collaborated on the exhibition, from the first brainstorms to reviewing text panels. The exhibition design reflects this open-minded and respectful approach: "All exhibition modules looks like wooden jewellery boxes from the outside, only revealing their unique contents once you step inside – a metaphor for our rich and unique interior lives, which also inspired Finnish artist Vappu Rossi who created 20 paintings for the exhibition – my own favourite exhibition element," shares Heidi.

Mental health as a continuum - and a topic for everyone

"In Finland we see mental health as a continuum," explains Heidi. "The exhibition was developed in cooperation with Pavilion of Knowledge–Ciência Viva in Lisbon, Portugal, and Universcience in Paris and we realised that we had different ways of seeing mental disorders. A French psychiatrist for instance objected that our 'continuum' approach might not recognize mental illnesses as such. Working on the exhibition led us all to question our own view of mental illness, both as individuals and as organisations".

To show that mental health is a topic for everyone, 53 staff members gave their face to the "Heureka goes Crazy" marketing campaign: they were photographed wearing silly goggles and their picture and name featured on campaign posters. "We wanted to show that we were all in this together, and that everyone sees the world through different glasses", explains Heidi.

In the United Kingdom, accessibility policies and initiatives for "neurodiverse audiences" have also found backing in a rising awareness of mental wellbeing as a public health issue. "What is called 'emotional health' or 'mental wellbeing' is high on the agenda," explains Trizia Wells from Eureka. The Happy Museum initiative for instance "looks at how the museum sector can respond to the challenge of creating a more sustainable future" by "provid[ing] a leadership framework for museums to develop a holistic approach to wellbeing and sustainability". "Links have been drawn between artistic and cultural activities and emotional health," explains Trizia. "We're embarking on this journey from the STEAM angle, with an upcoming sculpture programme as part of our "Super Sunday", a free club programme for disabled children and their families run through our Access All Areas project". "What about the connecting between science centres activities and emotional case?" she continues. Here's a case that needs building…

 

Setting standards

Universcience, Paris (France)

As a young engineer, Marie-Laure Las Vergnas joined the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie project in Paris, France, in 1984, two years before opening. "From the start, Paul Delouvrier, the high ranking civil servant who led the project of the whole Parc de la Villette, had decided that accessibility would be high on the agenda, which was really not typical at the time", she recalls. A consultative commission including disabled people was put together and met each month from 1983 onwards. In 1984 it presented a charter, taking into account all types of disabilities (including mental ones). In parallel a specialised architect was checking all plans for accessibility requirements.

It just seemed obvious to have people with impairments on the team 

One month before opening in 1986, Marie-Laure's department saw the light, consisting of a deaf person, a blind person, an interpreter and herself. At the time, sign language was still banned from the public education of French deaf children and it was still fairly uncommon for people with disability to visit cultural venues. "La Cité became a pioneer of accessibility in the country," continues Marie-Laure. In France, universal design and the rising awareness of accessibility requirements owe a lot to the Parisian science centre – it is no coincidence that the new "Tourisme et Handicap" label was launched at La Cité in 2001. Borrowing the words of Marie Laure's colleague Jean-Pierre Ferragu: the Cité contributed to shifting mentalities, and to putting into practice the idea that "disabled people don't live somewhere out there in a lost Jurassic Park world".

The depth and scope of Marie-Laure’s team are quite unique on the French and European scene: few organisations have such an integrated approach to making contents and programmes accessible, working with an in-house audience advocate team from concept to delivery. "The scope of what we mean by "accessibility" broadened over time to include sensorial, mobility, mental impairments and today social and cultural inclusion," outlines Marie-Laure (see the dedicated web page – the French version is richer than the English translation). "To me having people with impairments on the team just seemed completely obvious from the start", she explains, "as was the idea of not just making the building accessible but also the contents of our exhibitions and programmes". "My team have a key practice of accessible exhibition making, and they also act as important contacts with organisations representing disabled people", she outlines.

"Without access to information, you're culturally dead," signs Olivier Fidalgo, in charge of accessibility from hearing-impaired people. "My own motivation for working at Universcience is to provide access to information and knowledge for deaf and hearing-impaired people", he continues. "The fact that La Cité has deaf people on its workforce is a proof of the institution's commitment. It's an important sign of social recognition that I'm employed by Universcience. My community wants jobs and services, not state charity."

"Having us on the team has a positive impact on the way visitors with impairments are welcomed," argues Nathalie, who oversees accessibility for visually impaired visitors. "Because our colleagues are used to working with us (or at least seeing us go by) on a daily basis, they're more relaxed when interacting with physically or mentally impaired visitors".

Nathalie and her colleagues' mission entails collaborating on exhibitions; delivering special tours and working with explainers; acting as relays and contacts for communities and organisations of disabled people; and sharing best practice with colleagues around the world and students. Their in-depth involvement in the exhibition development process is the most integrated example I know of – in fact, when they suggested to have an Ecsite conference session on working as an in-house accessibility advocate & exhibition developer pair, Nathalie and her colleague Christelle Guiraud couldn't find counterparts.

What is the advantage of having rather than on external user advisory panels as is often the case?, I ask Nathalie. "Having an impairment doesn't mean you know how to develop an accessible exhibition!", she exclaims. "I had to learn two main sets of skills when I joined: how exhibitions and interactive exhibits are put together AND how to go beyond my own impairment in order to watch for the needs to a much wider spectrum of visually impaired people. When working with external consultative groups, you might come across people who are very focused on their own impairment."

The team's philosophy is close to universal design. "We constantly navigate between the ambition of providing interpretation for all and the necessity to take each impairment's specific needs into account", explains Jean-Pierre, who is in charge of mobility and mentally impaired audiences. He's currently putting the final touches to an update of their internal specification document that sets detailed standards for exhibitions (I think he'll share it if you ask nicely). "The document takes legal requirements into account but also importantly translates our philosophy of inclusive exhibition making into prescriptions for exhibition and interactive exhibit designers", he explains.  A former special needs educator and then explainer, he has developed a talent for introducing exhibits to audiences with learning difficulties – I can't resist to sharing one of his beautiful hand choreographies here.

Accessibility as a creative challenge for exhibition design

"I work with my colleagues from the Accessibility team as early as the exhibition concept stage," explains Exhibition Developer Christelle Guiraud. "It's a great creative challenge, something intellectually stimulating. It's also super healthy to have other people look at your exhibits idea with external eyes very early on!" Nathalie and Christelle are convinced advocates of this integrated approach that makes for more beautiful (and less expensive) inclusive design. Most films for instance can do without audio-description if they have been developed from the start with the requirement of being understandable without seeing the image.

"I have a fond memory of sending special needs teachers to the "Risk" exhibition with the task of identifying an inclusive exhibit and analysing it," reminisces Nathalie with a smile. "They came back 20 minutes later and sheepishly reported that they couldn't find one single accessible exhibit. That's because accessibility requirements were so seamlessly integrated into the exhibit design! We take pride in never having the strike-through eye 'for blind people' symbol."

"Developing more accessible exhibitions does have a cost. But the cost is much much higher if you don't plan for accessibility from the start and need to have 'add-ons'", explains Christelle. But it does have a cost, doesn't it? I ask. Yes it does. The Accessibility team have their own budget (an important tool of empowerment) and usually contribute around 30,000 € for a 900sqm exhibition, which corresponds to about one hour of video with sign language interpretation, Braille labels and some 3D sculptures – other accessibility requirements are taken into account at design stage and integrated into the overall exhibition budget.

Christelle remembers giving Braille a little push by paying half of the transcription costs for a venue abroad. "Our role as advocates of best practice is important to me," shares Olivier. "When our exhibitions go on tour we actively promote translation into the country's sign language."

Stay tuned: Marie-Laure promised to write up what she learnt in her 35 years of career soon. And something tells me this team would only need a few "please share" signals from peers to set up an in-depth pre-workshop at the 2018 Ecsite Annual Conference in Geneva…

 

100% togetherness

Tekniska Museet, Stockholm (Sweden)

Back to award-winning Tekniska Museet and its "MegaMind" wing dedicated to innovation and the brain, opened in autumn 2015. Inspired by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and by co-creation philosophies, the museum set itself two ambitions for its accessibility approach: "100% for everyone and 100% togetherness". The idea of making contents accessible to all was combined with the strong wish to provide collective experiences: "we want to avoid segregation," states Curator Mariana Back. "As much as possible, we don't have separate offers for specific audience segments."

Can you really reconcile the needs of all audiences into one experience?, I wonder. Mariana shares her current endeavours to make a climbing wall not only accessible to hearing- and visually impaired visitors, but also those with reduced mobility. "I take it as a creative challenge," she explains. "I might have to think of a completely different approach, like VR."

"I do sometimes see a potential tension between the rich, multisensorial environments we know foster informal learning and the needs of audiences with autism or ADHD who might experience sensorial overload," she continues. The "100% togetherness" principle now comes with one exception: "MegaMind focus", a special time slot reserved for children with learning difficulties to explore the exhibitions under "calmer" conditions. This was requested by teachers who sat on the "Reference group" gathering organisations representing disabled people, professionals working with them and scholars that followed the whole development of MegaMind. The Reference Group also asked for more detailed information available before the visit, which gave birth to this guide and the the video shown below.

 

"We didn't have much experience of working with people having disabilities," admits Maria Olsson. She is the new project leader for accessibility, bringing her solid experience of working with children having special needs in the school environment to the Museum. Setting up working methods and building trust took time. The team realised that while some collective meetings were important to build trust and discuss transversal questions, it was then more efficient to work with subsets when it came to reviewing exhibits. The Reference group also acted as a test group, and used its own networks to recruit more users for the many iterations of prototype testing. "Working with these organisations and running user tests meant that word got around in their communities, and people with special needs now come to the Museum trusting that they will find an experience that won’t disappoint them," explains Maria. All staff are now trained to interact with these more diverse audiences.

Yes, it costs money and time. It's a choice.

When asked about budgets, Mariana replies: "You can avoid some of the costs of retro-fitting by taking accessibility requirements into account from the start. As a whole, let's be frank: it does cost more to develop and deliver fully accessible exhibits. It's a choice: in my opinion it's simply a portion of your budget you need to factor in from the beginning."

 

Questioning the norm

Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden (Germany)

Set up by industrialist Karl August Lingner in the 1910s in an effort to bring health education to the masses and instrumentalised by the Nazis in the 1930s-40s, the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden, Germany, then focused on public health under the GDR before reinventing itself as a "Museum of Man" after the reunification, "an open forum for discussion, open to everyone who is interested in the cultural, social and scientific revolutions taking place in our society at the beginning of the 21st century" (more on its history here).

As I can see on the Museum's website and in the brochure Curator Colleen Schmitz sent me in advance of our interview, they have it all: step free access, tours in "easy German", a sign language app and Braille labels in the permanent exhibition, an accessible website, you name it. But I'm not too interested in this side of the story, I'm thinking as I dial Colleen on Skype on a late Friday afternoon. What I want to hear is how her museum tackled disability as a topic in several exhibitions. And indeed, for the next hour or so we have a fascinating conversation, jumping from Nijinksi to Balinese sculpture as Colleen magically pulls out exhibition catalogues and points at pictures while taking me on beautifully narrated (imaginary) tours of these shows. And yet, stubbornly, the question of physical and mental accessibility keeps popping back up. In the end it amounts to a good half of scribblings from our conversation in my notebook. I'm trying to split what actually comes as an integrated approach, I realise later: as the Museum tackled the question of imperfect bodies and minds in its exhibitions, it took increasing care of its own visitors' bodies and minds. Questioning norms and representations went along with developing an inclusion philosophy.

Questioning representations went along with developing an inclusion philosophy

In the early 2000s, the Museum was approached by an organisation representing people with disabilities (then called Aktion Sorgenkind - "Association for the Problem Child" - since then re-named Aktion Mensch). Together, they collaborated on the exhibition "Der (Im-)perfekte Mensch" ("The Imperfect Human Being"). The exhibition reflected a change in attitude in German society that was starting to see disability less as a personal fate and more as a societal issue. "The exhibition showed that we are all imperfect and that disabilities aren't necessarily deficits", explains Colleen. Addressing disability as an exhibition theme went hand in hand with putting robust accessibility measures in place: "Working with this NGO represented a learning curve for the Museum. The lessons we learnt and contacts we made on "Der (Im-)perfekte Mensch" were integrated into the renewal process of our permanent galleries, that re-opened in 2004-2005."

As a run-up to "Der (Im-)perfekte Mensch", the Museum ran a photography exhibition called "Bilder, die noch fehlten" ("Pictures that had been missing"). Curators Klaus Honnef and Gabriele Honnef-Harling invited photographers coming from an array of backgrounds in their work: fashion, lifestyle, beauty, journalism, politics etc. to take pictures of people with different physical and cognitive abilities, questioning the (in)visibility of disabled people in our society and the prevalent beauty canons. Working on updates for the Museum's permanent exhibition, Colleen is looking into integrating some of these pictures there.

Giving the overall idea of "diversity" more thought that "disability" in particular

More recently, the "Tanz! Wie wir uns und die Welt bewegen" exhibition ("Dance, moves that move us") in 2013-2014 questioned the idea of what makes a beautiful movement. Among others, it showed dance as a means of subversion, as an expression of subcultures. Several mixed-able companies were featured in the show, like DIN A 13, CANDOCO or DV8. In the ongoing "Sprache. Welt der Worte, Zeichen, Gesten" show ("Language. The World of Words, Signs and Gestures"), sign language, Braille and easy read are treated as topics and also form an integral part of the design: each language gets its own aesthetic space on the exhibition wall.  

"In terms of representations, I give the overall idea of "diversity" more thought that "disability" in particular. It's important to portray other people than young beautiful models, both in our exhibitions and in our marketing materials," sums up Colleen. "For example, we had clips of breakdancing grandmothers as well as scenes from Equality Dance championships in our dance exhibition, and  I'm currently gathering material to include LGBT and older people's views into the sexuality part of our permanent exhibition."

 

Self-empowerment

Euan's Guide (United Kingdom)

Early in my research, I Googled something like "accessibility science museums" and came across "A world of accessible science", an impressive review of accessible UK science engagement attractions. The review features on a beautifully designed platform called Euan's Guide that offers "disabled access reviews, by disabled people for disabled people".

disabled access reviews, by disabled people for disabled people

As I read up on the website: "Euan’s Guide is the disabled access review website that aims to ‘remove the fear of the unknown’ and inspire people to try new places. The website was founded in 2013 by brother and sister, Euan and Kiki MacDonald, after Euan became a powerchair user. After spending hours of their time making enquiries about access at places they wanted to go, the duo realised that they could not be alone in their search for disabled access information. This idea became Euan’s Guide, a digital charity that is helping to open up towns and cities to disabled people everywhere."

Contacted by email, the team explain: "We have disabled access reviews and listings for thousands of places in hundreds of towns and cities in the UK and beyond. Most of our reviews are for places in the UK at the moment, but excitingly we are seeing more and more coming from overseas!" Venues can also pro-actively register on the platform (onto your keyboards, dear readers!). If Euan's Guide sounds a little too British for you, there must be an equivalent in your country. Nathalie Joncour from Universcience (Paris, France) for instance talks about the French "Jaccede" online platform and app with enthusiasm: "It's a little like the trip advisor of the disabled", she explains. "We also organise meetups to systematically review shops and cafés in a specific neighbourhood or town – good fun!".

But back to Euan's Guide. What is your advice to Spokes readers, I ask the team. "Contrary to what many people believe," they reply, "a lot of the accessibility challenges that people face when going anywhere, including museums and science centres, is simply finding the access information they need in the first place. If it takes several clicks away from your website’s homepage to find your dedicated access page, then it has not been easy to find your information. Similarly, for science or museum events which require booking of tickets, it’s important to remember that not everybody communicates in the same way. This means there needs to be different ways of booking tickets, not just through an online booking system, or not only by phone. Not everyone can book tickets using a phone, just like not everyone can easily access your website; there needs to be various options."

Tips on accessible storytelling

The team has advice on contents too: "For science centre and museum engagement, accessible storytelling is one of the most exciting ways to engage audiences. There are endless opportunities to think creatively in order to tell one story to a diverse audience. The challenge is that sometimes engagement professionals will need to shift their perspective a little more than they might be used to - for example, have you ever considered that spoilers to a story might actually be a good thing?" Check out the piece they wrote on accessible storytelling.

 

Superpowers

Artist Håkan Lidbo

As the team of the Euan's Guide platform shared, "In terms of science, disabled people can be so innovative and have imaginative ways of overcoming barriers that it would wonderful for exhibitions to explore this, without being tokenistic."

People with disabilities as excellent design thinkers

Several times in my research I've come across this same idea that disability could be "a spark for innovation", as deafblind Accessibility and Inclusion Advocate Haben Girma calls it in her inspiring speech entitled "Disability & Innovation: The Universal Benefits of Accessible Design", given at the 2016 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. The typewriter and the email were invented to overcome access barriers, she explains. Add the Oxo vegetable peeler and the sms to the list with disability rights lawyer and design thinker Elise Roy (watch her TED talk or read the transcript). People with disabilities are excellent design thinkers, she argues in a nutshell: from a young age onwards they invent solutions to overcome barriers – and they're good at failing too, which is key to design thinking.

"Contemporary society actually makes all of us disabled. For instance we don't know how to look anymore: we follow signs and wayfinding," states Håkan Lidbo. "Imagination is one of my central missions: it's one of our most precious resources in our society, and yet it is scarce and poorly exploited." Lidbo sees an opportunity for museums and science centres here: "in an era where we have information available at the tip of our finger at all times through on our phones, the museum's role in changing from a provider of universal knowledge to a place of inspiration where you come for questions and not answers."

Many people considered 'disabled' might actually have superpowers

"As an artist I always think of what else things could be", he explains. "Reframing the question of 'disability' as the uneven distribution of abilities allows you to see things differently. I think that many people considered 'disabled' actually have superpowers – a notion I explore in my work". For instance he developed a tennis-like game played in the dark and a music instrument that needs to be hugged to work, making players with autism particularly gifted at it.

One of Lidbo's latest works is a pyramid-shaped orange robot that has "built-in disabilities": she finds it hard to move, as no sense of location, is hearing- and visually impaired and has severe autism. But why?, I ask. "No one is rude to a person in a wheelchair. By making a disabled robot who will be requiring help from people around her, I'm raising awareness of the fact that robots too have needs and deserve respect. These days we treat them as slaves, a position they will for sure come to understand as artificial intelligence develops. I want to prevent future racism against them."  

 

Advice for beginners

Along the way I've asked interviewees what advice they would share with peers embarking on a process to make their science engagement organisation more accessible.  Here are the 10 commandments I take from them.

1. Get everyone on board: director, technicians, tour guides… - Nathalie

2. Reach out to local NGOs and foundations. Invite them in, be open and listen - Hanna

3. If you can’t do it all, don’t do half of it on your whole site, but rather all of it on half your site - Robert

4. Connect with networks of peer organisations that already have expertise and practice – Marie-Laure

5. Hire young people – Jean-Pierre

6. Take it as a game. Start small with 2-3 exhibits – Christelle

7. Send the right message with your welcome - Trizia

8. Work on human interactions in your venue, not just interactive exhibits - Orna

9. Target your marketing: make sure your accessibility brochure lands in the right hands - Olivier

10. Observe your own public space (exhibitions, marketing material, website). Do you only show young beautiful bodies? - Colleen

Many, many thanks to the professionals who contributed to this article:

• At Tekniska Museet, Stockholm (Sweden): Mariana Back (Email) and Maria Olsson (Email).

• At PBTconsult, Utrecht (The Netherlands): Robert de Kloe (Email).

• The Euan’s Guide team (United Kingdom - Email | Twitter)

• At Universcience, Paris (France): Marie-Laure Las Vergnas, Nathalie Joncour, Jean-Pierre Ferragu and Olivier Fidalgo from the User quality and accessibility department (see the dedicated web page – the French version is richer than the English translation) and Christelle Guiraud form the Exhibitions department.

• At Heureka, the Finnish science centre, Vantaa (Finland): Mikko Myllykoski (Email | Twitter) and Heidi Rosenström (Email).

• At Dialogue Social Enterprise: Andreas Heinecke and Orna Cohen (Email).

• At Experyment, Gdynia (Poland): Natalia Grzywacz and Hanna Milewska (Email).

• At the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden (Germany): Colleen Schmitz (Email).

• At Eureka, Halifax (United Kingdom): Trizia Wells.

• Last but not least, artist Håkan Lidbo.