Culture for all is a universally acknowledged notion. We, as human beings, depend on culture, whatever form it may take, to understand our society, to be a part of it, to think outside the box… If you’re a museum curator or director, you may be sensitive to that and want to offer your visitors the best experience possible. But what about visitors with disabilities? What are the solutions you can set up to make museums accessible to them?

Not only does accessible museums mean welcoming all types of visitors, regardless of their profile, but it also means making the content understandable for them. You, as museum professionals, need to answer both challenges. Whether it’s a painting, a sculpture or a documentary, museums need to make culture accessible to its visitors. It has always been an area that easily warmed up to accessibility, much earlier than others. Seeing that culture focuses on creating dialogue and human connections and is synonymous with social inclusion, that makes perfect sense.

Let’s see the guidelines you should follow to make your museum more accessible! 

Why is making museums more accessible so important? 

Museum accessibility is indeed covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) meaning that museums have to provide accessibility for visitors with disabilities. They need to provide equal access and services to their venues for all types of audiences. 

According to the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), in 2019 museums in the U.S. produced 50 billion dollars with approximately 850 million visitors. Even though the world pretty much stopped in 2020 due to COVID-19, culture remains an essential part of our lives. With around 40 million Americans with disabilities, they represent potential visitors for museums to attract. 

Plus, of course, our need to connect with others and to other ways of thinking is key. Something that we all long for, including people with disabilities. Culture in general and museums in particular enable us to be more included in our society and to meet other people out of our comfort zone. That’s the power of social inclusion. Accessible museums simply make it easier for all audiences.

The Smithsonian Institution paves the way for others by making available accessibility guidelines for museum professionals. This applies to any museum dedicated to providing inclusive experiences to all its visitors.

Removing accessibility barriers at every stage

For museums to be more inclusive, accessibility barriers need to be removed at every step of the way. This means implementing a seamless mobility chain. It’s not just to be guaranteed when using public transit but when going from point A to point B: a blind person who would go from their home to a public venue. All inbetween stages need to be made accessible to ensure this person can properly reach their final destination.

Let’s see the stages where you, museum professionals, need to focus in order for visitors with disabilities to fully enjoy what the museum has to offer! 

Preparing the visit 

It’s probably the most important stage for people with disabilities. Indeed, they need to apprehend beforehand the venue they’re going to visit in order to make sure they’re not going to meet any difficulties during their trip or once they’ve arrived. Once again, everything needs to be seamless.

To get all the necessary information, your museum website is of course the most reliable resource. But the website needs to be accessible for all types of users. Check our article on digital accessibility to understand what it entails exactly! Simple solutions like subtitled videos, visual contrast and using alternatives to captchas can greatly help users with disabilities navigate the Internet.

Providing an online map to visitors is greatly useful for those with disabilities. They can apprehend the galleries and all the points of interest by themselves to get the most of their visit. Plus, they can download it on their phones and access it whenever they need it. As we previously saw in another article, 84% of people with disabilities use a smartphone! 

Seeing that some of the museums are gigantic mazes, being able to find the main entrance, your bearings and to know exactly where the accessible equipment like accessible restrooms are located is extremely convenient. For example, the Met in New York City represents the 5th largest museum in the world and was the most visited one in the U.S. in 2019 with 6,770,000 visitors. Its online map is well conceived to help any visitors enjoy their visit.

Going to the museum 

Once visitors have spotted the exact location of the museum they want to visit, they need to plan their trip to go there. What’s the best way to go there according to their needs? Where are the accessible parking spaces for wheelchair users? In a large city, using public transit can be the easiest way to get around. But it means riding an accessible subway for more autonomy.

Blind visitors can struggle to find the exact location of the museum entrance. A sound signage system like audio beacons remains the best solution to guide them. For example, NAVIGUEO+ HIFI audio beacons can be installed at the museum entrance and activated on demand by users to avoid noise pollution whether with a remote control or their smartphone with the MyMoveo app. 

Apprehending the museum and its galleries

Now that visitors with disabilities have access to your museum, they need to be able to get around freely and in complete autonomy. Welcoming visitors with different profiles means having a staff trained to best assist them according to their needs. It’s even more important with guided tours specially reserved for blind visitors. Being patient and letting them feel the works of art when possible at their own pace enables them to feel safe and to properly enjoy their visit. Besides, it takes a good storyteller to describe colors, shapes and all the details so make sure your staff knows how to make blind visitors “see” your collections! 

Moreover, all the services provided by your museum such as galleries, cafeterias and restaurants, restrooms and shops need to be accessible. Let’s see the basic equipment you need to implement to physically welcome visitors with disabilities and guide them!

Although guide paths help blind visitors find their way, they’re not to be used meagerly since too many of them could alter the esthetics of your venue. 

That’s why more and more museums choose to turn to digital solutions like navigation apps to apprehend the venue and easily get their bearings. The Sign Research Foundation established a guide on Digital Wayfinding Trends: Lessons Learned from Museums, Healthcare and Transit Experiences. This shows how these three different fields encounter the same issues about helping people with disabilities find their bearings in a complex environment but how a digital wayfinding solution can in fact solve them.

Besides, the Luma Foundation in Arles, France chose a wayfinding app for its visitors. The museum chose to provide its visitors with disabilities with the best experience possible by implementing Evelity: an indoor navigation app specifically conceived to suit any user profile.

Thus it’s perfect for:

⊗ Blind and visually impaired visitors: the app provides audio instructions thanks to VoiceOver and TalkBack screen readers. 

⊗ Deaf and hearing impaired visitors: a focus on text descriptions and icons.

⊗ Visitors with reduced mobility: they are given optimized routes meaning they are aware beforehand of the locations of elevators or escalators.

⊗ Visitors with a cognitive impairment: easy-to-read instructions that help them navigate their way without feeling overwhelming.

Plus, users can keep their phone in their pocket while using Evelity in order to enjoy the museum without having to carry it. This app truly helps visitors with disabilities feel more comfortable in an unfamiliar environment and make this museum accessible without having to undertake major renovation works.

And French architect Nadia Sahmi couldn’t agree more on the importance of physical and psychological comfort for all in cultural venues. She worked for instance on the Luma Foundation and the Vuitton Foundation. We had the chance to interview her and she gave us her insight on what culture for all entails. In her work, she focuses on a human-centered approach to take into account everybody’s needs. And every single detail counts: “For example, there’s no point in having properly sized spaces if we don’t take into account the light, preferably natural light or a well-thought artificial light.” 

Obviously, lighting is extremely important for museums since they favor low lighting to preserve their collections. But this can represent an obstacle for visually impaired visitors who wouldn’t be able to fully enjoy the works of art. The Mary Rose museum in Portsmouth England opted for “relaxed opening mornings” once a month when light levels are higher than usual for visually impaired visitors to properly enjoy the warship. This solution also helps people in the autism spectrum and people with dementia to feel more comfortable. 

Inclusive design thus proves to be essential to make museums accessible. The goal is to create solutions that meet the needs of several groups of people, something that cultural places like museums have always focused on, long before other fields to make culture accessible to all. 

Accessing the cultural content 

Although inclusive design can help make your museum more accessible, other solutions come into action to ensure all types of visitors can easily access the cultural content exhibited. Let’s review existing solutions some museums chose to implement!

The app Evelity, mentioned earlier, is perfect for museums: not only does it guide visitors with disabilities but it can also provide geolocated cultural content read by voice synthesis directly on their phones. Thus Evelity turns into a cultural mediation tool. An all-in-one solution to make your museum accessible!

That’s what the Maison Victor Hugo museum in Paris opted for: the app provides visitors with information about the venue, the artworks, the life of famous French author in addition to guide them from exhibition room to exhibition room.

They have access to a true phygital experience, a unique and interactive one.

What Is a Phygital Experience and How Can It Improve the Accessibility of Your Venue?

Some museums even go the extra mile like the Guggenheim in New York City for whom accessibility is important. They’ve established Mind’s Eye programs to provide sensory experiences to visitors with a visual impairment. They’ve also created a social narrative guide explaining to people with sensory processing disorders what to expect during their visit.

Making your museum accessible isn’t just about the venue in itself. Finding ways for people with disabilities to access the cultural content represents one of your most important challenges. Whenever possible, a lot of museums break with the famous “don’t touch!” rule for blind visitors and implement various types of tactile objects and models. This enables them to “see” by themselves the works of art through touch.

Creating tactile models and providing visitors with original experiences is Tactile Studio’s mission. This inclusive design agency is specialized in promoting the arts and culture for all. Their innovative works make museums more accessible, including famous ones like the Louvre in Paris. The most visited museum in Europe now has tactile stations showing blind visitors all the construction phases of the Louvre. 

Relying on modern technology to make museums accessible 

3D printing, which has become more generalized, also represents a great way for blind visitors to apprehend a certain work of art. However, relief models aren’t the only way to make cultural content accessible to them. A lot of digital solutions appear to reach a wider audience. Tactile Studio also happens to focus on them. The agency set up digital services for the “Photographs: An Early Album Of The World 1842-1896” exhibition at the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Implementing interactive animations, graphical interfaces and a digital narration is just another way for visitors to explore your museum and its collections.

Some museums even have their own apps displaying their works of art in a different format and offering a virtual tour like the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C. Its Deep Time Audio Description App enables users to explore the Fossil Hall directly on their phone thanks to a self-guided tour providing alt text images, visual descriptions and interactive touchscreen.  

Living interactive experiences makes culture come to life. This explains why more and more museums bet on virtual reality (VR) to show their exhibits. Visitors just have to wear a helmet to explore an exhibit. This can be very useful for visitors with reduced mobility: they can enjoy an exhibit at their own pace. Or even for blind visitors who could feel like they’re “touching” a forbidden sculpture. The National Museum of Natural History in Paris even set up a permanent Cabinet of Virtual Reality so that visitors can dive into Evolution. This enables visitors to be completely immersed in a stimulating environment.

It’s the same process with augmented reality (AR) even though it’s via an app. This technology offers an altered version of the environment. It helps visually impaired visitors have a better sense of the work displayed in front of them with more contrast and highlight on details. Once again, the National Museum of Natural History proves to be a pioneer in modern technology. In order to showcase the skeletons from its famous Bone Hall, the museum created an augmented reality app: Skin and Bones. A way to show users how these animals used to move!  

In order for your museum to be more accessible, you need to rethink the way you showcase your collections to best suit all types of audiences. It’s obvious that providing inclusive experiences is becoming the norm. Culture for all isn’t just a trend. As we saw, museums are all committed to having accessible venues providing accessible content! What about yours?

Check out this study on museum accessibility for blind and visually impaired people in France led by Okeenea Digital! You’ll learn precisely what obstacles users with a visual impairment encounter when they go to a museum.

Updated on May 24th, 2022 / Published on June 11th 2021

Putting architecture at the service of individuals’ well-being, that’s Nadia Sahmi’s principle, architect and CEO of Cogito Ergo Sum’s agency in Tours, France. She works as accessibility, quality of life and user experience consultant on a lot of museum projects. For her, “us” in “user”, implies the plurality of our differences, all the singularities we, as different groups of people, may have. Being convinced that making all types of audiences feel welcome comes from a global approach, Nadia Sahmi fights against technical and regulation shortcuts to put human beings at the center of every project.

Hello Nadia Sahmi. For our readers who may not know you yet, could you tell us about your approach as an accessibility consultant?

On every project I’ve worked on, my goal is to bring physical, psychological and sensory comfort to all users respecting at the same time the architectural design. For that, I study projects through the eyes of the most vulnerable users. If we take into account the needs of the most fragile among us, we truly improve society for all. I favor a global approach, taking into account all audiences in their diversity.

The strictly regulation approach that control offices adopt causes a lot of rejection. The danger is having an approach that’s too segmented, too prescriptive and not human enough. I make a point of making everybody adhere by turning things around. We create “for all”, including blind people and wheelchair users, not the way around. We don’t favor a group of people over another, we don’t point the finger at anyone. Plus, anybody can momentarily become visually or hearing impaired depending on the circumstances. Let’s just take the example of smartphone addicts… The most important thing is to find common denominators that will bring comfort and well-being to all.

More specifically, if we focus on museums, what do you think the principles to respect should be for these cultural sites to become accessible to all? 

Once again, it’s about focusing on a global approach. Making access to culture easier comes from improving the staff’s work conditions. They need to be able to act as facilitators. Everybody should be able to move around in all areas, to get closer to collections, to take note of mediation content. These examples show that focusing only on respecting accessibility technical regulations isn’t enough to make a museum accessible. By tackling accessibility through usability and empathy towards users, not only do we make all people involved adhere to the project but we also gain quality feedback. The goal remains providing physical and psychological comfort so that everybody can feel well in their heart and inner self.

For example, there’s no point in having properly sized spaces if we don’t take into account the light, preferably natural light or a well-thought artificial light. The unit of measurement can’t be lux but psychological comfort. It’s true that we can’t make people agree on everything. Studies show that men prefer white light and that women prefer yellow light. We need to accept differences and we need to find the big common denominators, the layouts that enable everybody to find their groove. That’s the vision I provide clients and users with. Colors and materials also have a strong impact on mental health. White is like a flavor enhancer: you can’t put too much of it at the risk of ruining the whole thing. There’s a whole culture to develop.

When we talk about accessibility, usually we point out the cost that comes with creating access ramps and oversized rooms. But we never talk about the benefits of creating a society where we can be comfortable in: less aggressivity, less health issues. From the moment we elevate individuals by offering them quality spaces, everybody feels better. To parody a famous brand, the headline of my approach could be: “Because I too, I’m worth it!”

In a museum, what matters before all is the way I’m welcomed, the services I get, the technologies at my disposal. Museums need to be pleasant for everybody. I have enough large spaces, intuitive paths so I feel safe to enjoy the experience. Mediation tools are diversified and adapt to the needs of everybody. No more “don’t touch!”, it’s about time we can explore museums in a different way.

Read out this study on museum accessibility for blind and visually impaired people and know more about their needs.

So opening up museums to all audiences depends on a global approach that leaves nothing and no one behind. Can you give us any examples of museums that have adopted this approach?

At the moment, I’m working on the Luma Foundation in Arles, France. We focus a lot on welcoming visitors, its organization. The goal is to bring flexibility, to assist people who need it. We rehumanise, we give meaning back to reception jobs. We reintroduce quality in relationships with others. Due to excessive hygienism or responsibility fear, it’s something we’ve completely lost track of. 

Despite everything, we can’t only rely on humans. Of course, the layout has its importance. On this project, neither text nor usability permitted us to implement a tactile signage system. I went to Okeenea to develop a solution for all, a solution that architects couldn’t reject. The indoor wayfinding solution is pain-free for architecture and is incidentally more effective than a tactile signage system for blind people because it enables them to have flexibility in their paths. It’s more than a wayfinding solution since the idea is to provide content about the history of the location. At first, we had a lot of technical and architectural constraints, due to the presence of a lot of metal. So we proceeded in stages carrying out tests on a limited area that turned out to be conclusive. What I’m interested in with this solution is that it’ll serve everybody and that it’s capable of evolving over time following the life of the building. The exhibits are never permanent so it’s important that nothing is set in stone.

Besides, we can’t put aside the 35% of French who aren’t comfortable with digital technologies. 17% of the population don’t use a smartphone and among those who do, many aren’t completely comfortable with it. We need to think of a tool that could be used by visitors to replace smartphones, an intuitive and easy-to-manipulate tool, including for people who may have their hands full with a mobility aid or something else.

The Luma Foundation does research to create a breadcrumb trail adapted to all types of floors. The idea is to create a continuity in all spaces that’s both useful and beautiful. Several artists are involved and its Mrs Hoffmann, the Foundation’s benefactor, who will have the last word. The tactile guide strips at the top of the stairs have also been rethought to fit in the architecture.

I advocate for “specific” mediation tools to be generalized for everybody. For example, the tools that are developed for blind people are great for kids but also for other audiences. At the Vuitton Foundation, another project on which I’ve worked a lot, everything has been conceived to welcome all audiences in their diversity. The plans and the tactile models that enable blind people to visualize Frank Guery’s architecture, the volumes, the way spaces are interlocked and the materials, attract all types of visitors, because they were put on the visit tour and they deal with beautiful creations. The visit assistant smartphone app is compatible with voice synthesis and is composed of subtitled and American Sign Language content. It’s completely open for a visitor who doesn’t need it but for a visually or hearing impaired person, the mediation content is here and available.

We’ve talked about the specific case of museums. But accessibility applies to all public places and housing. In order to broaden the subject, could you tell us what your recommendations are in these fields?

The main mistake remains segmenting the approaches. The regulation approach causes rejection when, on the principle, everybody agrees on creating well-being for everybody. We need to look for solutions by having a meeting of minds between architects, users and contracting authorities. It’s important to organize spaces according to usability data and not dimensional data. We also need to reintroduce the humane party. Autonomy is an aspect for which we can’t compromise on dealing with housing. However, outdoors, we can create social ties. Having worked a lot in difficult neighborhoods, I can tell you that when you provide quality of life, the whole society benefits from it.

Another important aspect is letting users choose, choose between oversized or reduced restrooms, between stairs or access ramps for example. Everywhere we have generalized the use of ramps but it’s a nightmare for the elderly. Crossing a ramp can be very difficult when one has balance issues. Imposing elevators everywhere isn’t the solution either. On the contrary, we need to promote physical activity for the elderly. I advocate installing stairs back. I know physios who have their patients work on small portable wooden stairs, just because building stairs aren’t highlighted, are ill-conceived and with a poor signage system. It’s urgent to invest in stairs: a good lighting, visual contrast on the stairs. However, we need to be careful with tactile guide strips with rounded nails that we usually find at pedestrian crossings. Elderly people could fall on them. Indoors, they can be replaced with groove mats or other flat nails. It’s important to think about solutions in their plurality and not restricting ourselves on ready-made solutions. When an older person stays cooped up, it’s because of their fears, starting with the fear to fall. I had the opportunity to observe this in a residential building on which I worked on. When we installed stair nosings with visual contrast, elderly people started to go outside. A month later, we implemented tactile guide strips with rounded nails and it was over! They had to be replaced with ground mats. It’s an intuitive code that works very well for everybody.

Control offices often lead to shortcuts regarding regulations. It’s important to make an effort in understanding what are the needs that led to the solutions described in laws and in knowing when it’s not necessary to follow them to the letter in order to keep an open mind. Regulations have opened up possibilities and enabled us to have “alternative solutions”. We need to dare!

I’ve been advocating these ideas for 25 years now with decision makers, politicians, investors. Architecture needs to meet all usability goals and this can happen fighting against clichés and bad paradigms. We need to be patient and persistent but it’s worth fully focusing on it to improve our togetherness!

Read out our articles to learn more about design and how it can help improve the everyday lives of people with disabilities: 

Adopting a Design Approach to Put People at the Heart of New Mobility Services – Interview with Marie-Charlotte Moret

Creating an Accessible and Barrier-Free Society through Inclusive Design: a Constant Renewal