In practice: Working towards an accesible museum
The UMU (University Museum Utrecht) wants to be a museum for all curious people. That includes people who have difficulty walking, are hard of hearing or deaf, have a visual impairment or cannot cope well with stimuli due to autism or non-congenital brain injury, for example. Marieke Verhoeven explains how the museum adapts.
To make the museum as accessible as possible, we work together with organisations that can advise on this. Before the reopening, we organised test days and conversations with different target groups to see how we can offer them a good museum experience as well. We learn a lot from this: various solutions have been realised or are in development. UMU uses three principles in this: equality, independence and hospitality.
Ten gestures
Small adjustments often make a big difference. For example, for people with visual impairments there are several objects in the museum that can be touched and there are marking lines on the stairs. For people who are hard of hearing or deaf, not only are all videos in the museum subtitled, but the ‘Kennismakers’ (museum educators) who supervise activities at the museum and run school programs have learned ten gestures to welcome visitors who are hard of hearing or deaf.
Stimulus-free
For visitors who cannot cope well with stimuli, it is important that they can prepare for their museum visit. For them, we have information on the accessibility page of the website. You can also find a preparation document here. This explains, for example, what to expect when you visit the museum. We work together with ‘Onbeperkt Genieten’, an organisation that offers tailor-made advice for cultural organisations that want to work with low-stimulus cultural offerings.
Friday Museum Day
Once every two weeks, residents of care facilities visit UMU. They receive a customised tour of both the museum and museum garden the ‘Oude Hortus’. They are guided by a museum teacher with experience with the target group. During the visit, there is plenty of room for interaction. Questions are asked, stories are told and memories are recalled.
Text: Marieke Verhoeven