Monday, September 14, 2009

Recommendations for Art Museums...

Betty G. Miller
Celebration 

Since all museums are different and exist in varying communities, these recommendations can be adjusted and chosen to fit the differing requirements of the community that the arts institution serves. Additionally, it is important to understand that making a museum more accessible for visitors who are Deaf or have different abilities is not something that can happen overnight; it takes a lot of time, planning, and trial and error to find the most effective ways to provide accommodations for visitors. It is also important to note that once accessibility for Deaf visitors has been achieved, museums should try to become inclusive to people with other disabilities; it is better to include groups of people into an accessibility plan one at a time to insure the effectiveness of the programs. For the readers information, since my research and studies were conducted in Chicago, many of the resources I provide links to are based in Illinois. The following list includes steps that museums can take to enhance accommodations and programming for people who are Deaf:

1. Access Coordinator
Museums with successful accessibility programs have people on staff – usually in the Education Department – who are responsible for developing, creating and evaluating programs for people with varying abilities (Deafworks, 2001). Having an Access Coordinator or Access Educator on staff would not only help develop programs for people with disabilities, but it would also help the museum become a place that creates awareness about the needs of people who have different abilities. (The publication titled Accessibility Planning and Resource Guide for Cultural Administrators has a section specifically about designating an access coordinator and is available for download here.) This position can be a job alone or it can be added on to a similar job that already exists at the museum; it is up to the art museum to decide which option fits their institution best. However, it is important that this person has a background in or has access to being trained about providing services for people with disabilities. For instance, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has two Access Coordinators in the Education Department who work on creating and implementing programs for visitors with varying abilities. Because of the work done by the Access Coordinators, this institution is a great example of an art museum that provides equal access in programming for visitors who learn in many different ways. To see the programs the MET provides for visitors with disabilities, please visit their website by clicking here. (On this website, click on the link for Step 3).

2. Audit
In conjunction with a local Deaf organization, local Deaf people, and/or disability organization, conduct an audit of the physical environment of the museum and the accessibility programs that the museum provides for the Deaf community. Museums in the Chicago area can work with disability organizations such as Access Living, the Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities (MOPD), the Open Doors Organization (ODO), and the Midwest branch of the Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center (DBTAC) and deaf organizations such as the Illinois Deaf and Hard of Hearing Commission (IDHHC) and the Chicago Hearing Society (CHS) to help audit the facilities and programming. Once an audit has been completed, museums should work with the auditors or consultants to come up with ways to eliminate physical and social barriers, improve programming, and create trainings for museum staff. Another good option for an audit is to create an access advisory committee, which can be made up of members of the local Deaf community, Deaf organizations, and various staff of the art museum to continually evaluate the state of the access programs that the institution provides for the public. The publication titled Accessibility Planning and Resource Guide for Cultural Administrators also has a section specifically about creating an access advisory committee and is available for download here. (On this website, click on the link for Step 4).


3. Trainings
It is essential that all museum staff be aware and trained on the museum’s accessibility policy and practices. More specifically, since these employees come into contact with the public the most, docents, educators, gallery guards, and security should be trained on how to communicate and work with members of the Deaf community, if not the entire staff. Docents and other educators should be trained in more detail as to how to work with an interpreter and other strategies that would help with educating and communicating information to people who are Deaf. Art museums in Chicago can work with the groups and organizations mentioned in the links within the previous AUDIT section to create and/or administer trainings for museum employees.

Furthermore, the museum can choose to start a docent-training program for skilled sign language interpreters or for people who are Deaf and have an interest and/or background in the arts so that the museum can offer regularly scheduled tours and programs in sign language by people who are informed in the arts and sign language. Since the 1970’s, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been providing such a docent training program (Rebecca McGinnis, personal communication, December 1, 2008). Involving members of the Deaf community in the museum education process can encourage and empower the Deaf community to become more active and integrated into general society as well as keep the community in close ties with the museum in the long run, which could increase the size of the Deaf audience.

4. Marketing
If a museum or other arts organization wants to provide programming for the Deaf community, the institution must develop a marketing plan to communicate this information to the Deaf community. Access icons that convey accommodations, such as sign language interpretation and closed/open captioning for example, should be included in all general marketing schemes if the institution provides these services. Advertisements should also include contact information via TTY, TDD, or e-mail so that a consumer who is Deaf can contact the institution. By including such information in all marketing and advertising initiatives, this inclusiveness would help reach more people and increase awareness about accessibility. Also, museums can contact local Deaf groups, clubs, organizations, churches, and schools about making presentations about Deaf programming, handing out marketing materials or coming up with programs specifically catered to a particular Deaf group. In the Chicago area, the mission of the Open Doors Organization (ODO) is to help businesses in the field of disability marketing among other goals.

a. Website Development
Since people with disabilities rely heavily on the Internet for information, museums and other arts organizations must have an “accessibility” section that is easy to find on their websites’ homepage (Solutions Marketing Group, 2007). Art museums should provide as much information about accessibility and accessible events on their webpage as possible. For example, providing a downloadable calendar of accessible events would be helpful for visitors of a museum’s website. In the accessibility section of a website, including a brief video in American Sign Language about the accessibility options at the museum for visitors in the Deaf community would show all visitors of the website that the museum welcomes sign language users and provides such accommodations. Accessibility sections on websites should also include contact information via TTY, TDD, and/or an e-mail address that a person who is Deaf can use to contact the museum if (s)he has any questions or concerns. An exemplary museum website that offers informational videos in British Sign Language about the museum and its exhibitions is the Bantock House at Wolverhampton Arts and Museums. Another great resource for the British Deaf community is the MAGIC website which is a consortium of 16 museums in London that provide programming for members of the Deaf community and use the MAGIC website to post information about Deaf programming. These two websites are favorable examples of how to communicate institutional and programmatic information to Deaf museum visitors.

5. Social Component
From my research of different museum programs for the Deaf community, since the Deaf community is very tight knit, I have found that having a social component along with the educational program helps to build comfort and loyal attendance with visitors who are Deaf (Rebecca McGinnis, personal communication, December 1, 2008; Deafworks, 2001). Social components may consist of a reception with food and drinks or any sort of informal gathering where the Deaf visitors can socialize with each other and the museum staff before or after a program. Art museums in the Chicago area can work with the Deaf organization known as the Chicago Deaf and Hard of Hearing Cultural Center (CDHHCC) to combine efforts and bring social and art educational-related events to the art museum. There is a Deaf social event in Chicago called Duppies. Duppies is a Deaf happy hour that takes place once every month at different bars in the Chicago area. It would be a great opportunity for art museums to contact the organizer(s) of Duppies to host one of the gatherings at the museum in order to expose the Deaf community to the art museum and so that the museum staff can get to know the Deaf community.

Resources:
Deafworks. (2001). Access for deaf people to museums and galleries: A review of good practice in London. London: Deafworks.

Solutions Marketing Group. (2007). Disability facts. Retrieved on November 15, 2008. http://disability-marketing.com/facts/.

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