The Interpreter: NYCMER's Online Journal of Ideas
Increasing Accessibility for Everyone:
Access and Cultural Institutions
By Leah Fox and Robert Forloney
Cultural institutions have the responsibility to create an inclusive environment that is accessible to all, regardless of their abilities. Exhibitions, programs and services should be designed to ensure that all audiences are able to participate in a meaningful and engaging way. In 2003, 54 million Americans (15% of the total U.S. population) reported some level of disability. Over 2.5 million New Yorkers have a disability. Not only is inclusive programming an opportunity for audience development and to do what is morally right, it is also the law. Congress enacted legislation over a decade ago to expand the civil rights of individuals with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) states that cultural organizations, private or public, regardless of whether they receive federal funding, may not discriminate against those with disabilities.
In order to become fully accessible, institutions should consider not only the physical plant but also their public programs, printed materials, website and communication systems. There are many organizations trained and willing to aid institutions in achieving this goal, including the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the New York State Council on the Arts. In New York City, we also have the Museum Access Consortium.
A History of the Museum Access Consortium
The Museum Access Consortium (MAC) is a New York City Metro Area organization that strives to enable cultural facilities of all types to increase access for people with disabilities. MAC defines accessibility broadly, to include architectural, physical, communication, attitudinal and other forms of access. They take as a basic tenet that increasing accessibility for people with disabilities increases accessibility for everyone.
MAC was originally formed in the mid 90's by a group of individuals from a variety of New York City museums. At that time, the majority of participants in MAC were museum staff that specifically dealt with accessibility in their respective institutions. They met to discuss access issues and acted as a support group for each other. Because of its informal structure, the group gradually disappeared over several years.
Early in 2001, meetings were held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art to discuss the possibility of reviving MAC, and involving representatives from many museums and other cultural institutions throughout the city. MAC was recreated with a broader purpose: believing that the strongest institutional commitment to accessibility occurs when all departments share in the responsibility for physical, programmatic, and attitudinal accessibility, the group sought to include individuals from all departments of museums and cultural institutions. For example, visitor services, security, and other front line staff need to know how to offer assistance to someone with a disability, what types of accommodations might be requested, and the institution's policies for fulfilling those requests. Graphic design departments can work with visitor services staff to develop signage that is universally accessible and facilitates wayfinding. Exhibition design and curatorial departments play a key role in how all visitors experience the institution's collections; therefore, they share the responsibility for developing accessible wall text and labels, installing artwork or displays at appropriate heights and angles, and providing ample seating in the galleries. Marketing departments can work to ensure that information about accessible programs and services are reaching target audiences as well as the general public. MAC strives to provide professional development trainings that provide practical tools so various departments can reach these goals.
The largest philosophical shift for MAC was to solicit involvement of community members and people with various types of disabilities. The organizers felt it was extremely important to include these individuals as equal members in the organization, from the initial organization of MAC's structure to the planning and implementation of the professional development workshops it would offer its members. These voices, along with those of service providers, added a new dimension and depth to the newly reformed organization.
MAC has grown to include nearly 60 cultural institutions and over 20 service organizations, as well as many representatives of the disability community and people with personal experience dealing with accessibility issues. MAC is coordinated by volunteers who organize, plan and implement lectures and workshops which are free and open to all. Members of the Steering Committee use their own institutional resources and networks to obtain host sites, presenters and materials, and to increase visibility in the museum community by distributing information about MAC and presenting at local conferences.
Philosophy, Mission and Objectives
The members of MAC exchange information, ideas and resources and provide a network of mutual support. Working primarily in affiliation with the disability community, cultural and grass roots organizations, and state and local agencies, MAC is establishing an ongoing dialogue and strengthening the link between museums and the disability community, increasing accessibility in cultural institutions, serving as a collaborative resource for institutions implementing accessibility programs, providing educational and informational resources on accessibility to museums, their visitors, and potential visitors and increasing museum visitation by people with disabilities through accessible outreach and a welcoming environment.
To achieve these goals, MAC has developed the following objectives:
- Provide tools for museums to evaluate their own accessibility.
- Conduct on-going training sessions with people from the disability community on ways to work with people with disabilities, and on various methods for access in museums.
- Develop a public resource on the accessibility programs and services offered by museums in and around New York City. This resource could be in the form of a booklet or website.
- Exchange information about museum accessibility programs and services offered by MAC museums during meetings.
Programming
Professional development programs are among the most important outreach strategies that MAC offers. Through lectures, workshops and roundtable discussions, the organization is able to educate cultural institutions about accessibility issues and introduce knowledgeable professionals to a greater audience. Shortly after MAC regrouped in 2001, the National Center for Disability Services (NCDS) surveyed MAC's membership to determine what museums are already doing regarding accessibility, and what these individuals hope to gain from the consortium. These findings led to targeted professional development trainings and workshops. Also, MAC has developed Guidelines for Accessible Presentations for all of its guest speakers, to ensure that each meeting is accessible to all participants.
General meetings of the MAC membership have focused on accessibility programs and services at specific museums, accessibility in specific museum functions, and specific audiences with disabilities. For example, a visit to the Wave Hill Cultural Center focused on access programs in the Center's outdoor garden program and indoor gallery. This was directly beneficial for those members who work at botanical gardens and other outdoor spaces, and also helped members from other museum disciplines to broaden their definition of museum accessibility. At another workshop, Joshua Gendel from the League for the Hard of Hearing met with the consortium to educate museum staff about the needs of people with hearing loss and the ways to make cultural institutions more accessible through the use of assistive listening devices and other technology.
In January 2003, Professor of Universal Design Bruce Hannah spoke to the consortium about universal design—designing products and environments so that they are useful for all audiences, regardless of abilities (ergonomic chairs, for example)—in exhibitions, using as an example Unlimited By Design (Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, 1998-99), which he co-curated and co-designed. Following his presentation, which took place at the Brooklyn Museum of Art (BMA), the audience used the BMA galleries as a laboratory for testing universal design principles. This program was attended by exhibition designers, curatorial staff, graphic designers, education staff, and visitor services staff from various museums around New York City.
The most recent professional development workshop, "Making it Work: Human Resources and the ADA," offered critical information about the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the recruiting and hiring process, and how to advertise job postings and internship opportunities in a way that will encourage applicants with disabilities. Possibilities for future programming include a city-wide open house highlighting the access programs at different museums and service organizations around the city, a day-long conference focusing on disability culture, and a workshop on web accessibility leading to the development of a MAC website.
In order to document presentations and workshops and to make them available to a greater audience, efforts have been made to videotape all MAC programs. The National Center for Disability Services has created copies of the programs and made them available through their Smeal Learning Center.
MAC is also using distance learning technology to reach a greater audience. In November of 2003, Hannah's presentation was webcast to a variety of institutions throughout the nation. Local groups such as Exhibit A Design Group (a Brooklyn-based exhibition design and interpretation firm) and the Brooklyn Children's Museum arranged for groups of staff members to view the lecture; distant groups such as Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Chicago Botanic Garden, University at Buffalo, and Minnesota Historical Society were also able to take advantage of this new initiative. The webcast is now archived on the Arts and Cultural Initiatives website of the NCDS. This archive includes the live question and answer session with Bruce Hannah that occurred following the original broadcast. View the webcast at this page.
MAC is planning to webcast many of its future presentations and programs. These webcasts will be fully accessible with captioning and descriptions and will be available on an accessible website. MAC members are also invited to continue discussions or post accessibility questions on the consortium's Yahoo internet discussion group. (Interested individuals can join the yahoo group, MuseumAccessConsortium@yahoogroups.com at any time for no cost.) The organization is working to create a website to enable members to download MAC information and resources.
Cultural institutions have the legal and moral responsibility to create inclusive environments that are usable by all. Going into the future, exhibitions, programs and services must be designed to ensure that all audiences are welcome and able to participate in a meaningful way. The Museum Access Consortium is helping museums achieve this goal.
For more information about MAC, or to join MAC's Yahoo discussion group, please e-mail MuseumAccessConsortium@yahoogroups.com.
Leah Fox is the Vice Chair of the Museum Access Consortium, as well as Associate Educator of Community and Access Programs at the Museum of Modern Art. Robert Forloney, Co-Chair of the Museum Access Consortium, is also the Education Task Force Chair, Commissioner's Local Historians' Advisory Council, New York State Education Department.