Museums have come a long way in recent years towards making their buildings, collections, information and programming accessible to and inclusive of all audiences. But how have Universal Design Principles been incorporated into planning and design? Through examples from the South African National Gallery, Wolverhampton Art Gallery {UK}, The Metropolitan Museum of Art {USA}, and others, this session will illustrate some of the multi-sensory, multidisciplinary approaches employed in museums that foster inclusiveness and universal access. Presentations will focus on exhibition and program planning and design; institutional policies; conservation issues; interpretation techniques; and wayfinding. The South African National Gallery made strides in the 1960s and 1970s towards improved access to interpretation for all audiences. This was achieved through workshops and The Touch Gallery, which functioned for fifteen years. Since 2000, there has been a resurgence of interest in actively welcoming visitors from diverse backgrounds and with varying abilities and disabilities. Interpretative workshops, including visitors of all ages with and without disabilities, employ multi-sensory, multidisciplinary approaches to encourage individual creative expression. The workshops take themes explored in current exhibitions as a point of departure. "Shared Insights" workshops, in which a cross-section of teenagers discuss notions of stereotype and bias, are included in each series. Two UK initiatives, a sculpture gallery at Wolverhampton Art Gallery and a historical science exhibition at the Hunterian Museum in the Royal College of Surgeons in London, explore ways in which museum exhibits and spaces can be made accessible to all, through multi-sensory interpretation and work with artists. The Wolverhampton project aimed to introduce modern and contemporary sculpture {some newly commissioned} to the general public, but particularly to visually impaired art students. The project tackled a range of issues relating to conservation {everything could be touched}; description to those without sight; navigation around the gallery; and learning through touch. At the Hunterian Museum, an eighteenth-century surgical specimen collection housed in formaldehyde-filled glass jars presented a different kind of challenge. This was overcome using audio; model-making; creative use of familiar analogy to describe unfamiliar things; and work with artists to interpret and explore the objects on show. Both projects explored how we learn, how we use our senses and make connections between and across them, and the extent to which everyday visual experiences are informed and sometimes challenged by the other senses. The Metropolitan Museum of Art offers examples of Universal Design in educational programming as well as museum-wide policy-making. The Museum`s Access Coordination office is situated within the Education Department, but works across the entire museum to foster inclusiveness in areas such as Design, Visitor Services, Facilities Management, Curatorial Departments, and Human Resources. Disability Awareness Training and other training relating to accessibility and cultural diversity are offered to all staff. Met Access Coordinators also plan accommodations to all museum programs, such as Sign Language interpretation of lectures, gallery talks and family programs; Real Time captioning of lectures; and assistive listening devices for gallery talks. They devise programs such as the Egyptian and American architecture and decorative arts touch tours; and workshops with handling objects and works of art from the Touch Collection. One of these workshop series, called "Picture This!" won the American Association of Museum`s Accessibility Award in 2003. These examples emphasize and clarify the strengths and weaknesses of three basic approaches to Universal Design: education centered; design centered, and institution driven.
www.designfor21st.org/proceedings/proceedings/project_mcginnis.html