Accessibility settings

A key way to encourage deaf, disabled and neurodivergent visitors to your heritage site is to improve the pre-visit access information available online. Between May and August, over 50 volunteers checked the access information on over 2,000 heritage sites, as part of the Heritage Access 2022 project, made possible with public funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. Together with project partners Stagetext, Centre for Accessible Environments and Autism in Museums, we’re now in the process of pulling together the data from that research and writing a report to be published in late October. Email us at [email protected] if you would like to be sent a link to download the report when it’s ready, or follow us on social media (Twitter).

At the request of our friends at The Heritage Alliance, we’ve put together a list of ten things to help you when reviewing your access information, both as a Twitter thread, and below. And, while waiting for the 2022 report to come out, do check out State of Museum Access 2018.

1. Consult deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people. Ask a range of local people who know your venue well about their experiences and thoughts about barriers to access at your venue. Consult people experienced in providing this information too!
2. Think about the whole journey, from marketing and pre-visit information, getting to your venue, the entrance and welcome, and then through the venue, café, shop and even how people can leave feedback afterwards.
3. Provide lots of detail in your access information, such as the number of steps, the width of a doorway. Every piece of detail will be important information for someone. Don’t edit out details. This is not marketing information.
4. Be honest about what you have and what you don’t have. People know that old buildings can be difficult to adapt. Currently no lift to the upper floors? Tell people before they arrive. But also think of other creative ways you can provide access to the space.
5. Address your reader directly, using the second person “you”. Don’t distance or other them as “disabled visitors.” Online access information should be inclusive, useful and warm in tone. It’s not a legal statement or internal policy document.
6. Enable and encourage people to contact you with questions about access. Offer email and phone number, and avoid inaccessible forms. Make sure the mailbox is managed by knowledgeable staff who respond quickly. Visitors may want to come the same or next day!
7. Cover all the senses in your access information: A dark basement room? A noisy café or loud gallery audiovisual? A strong smell from a nearby shop or factory? Cobble stones underfoot? A wobbly bridge? Tell us all.
8. Use different formats. Images and videos on your access page help visitors know in advance what to expect. Video is a great way to provide a BSL introduction, and audio for descriptive directions and introduction. Make sure you use captions, alt text and description too.
9. Show deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people experiencing and enjoying your heritage site, and not just on your access information page. Include as wide a range of people as possible.
10. Review and refresh your access information regularly. It should reflect seasonal or temporary changes at your venue and locally. Are walkways slippery because of ice or rain? Do major roadworks mean that blue badge parking is unavailable for a period?

 

Image credits for the Twitter thread

The ten ways have been published in a Twitter thread with animated gifs showing images of various heritage sites and their visitors.

Image 1: Avro Museum, Stockport. Credit: Heritage Open Days

Image 2: Conservation work at Dover Castle, 2019. Credit: English Heritage

Image 3: The Catherine and Jane Wells Memorial Window Window, Bradford Cathedral. Credit: The Association of English Cathedrals

Image 4: View of visitors on the staircase at Castle Coole, County Fermanagh. Credit: ©National Trust Images / John Millar

Image 5: Telliskivi Creative City in Tallinn, Estonia. Credit: Placecloud

Image 6: Family visiting Shakespeare’s Birthplace, Stratford-upon-Avon. Credit: Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Image 7: Child participating in the Wessex Archaeology activities at the Big Bang Fair, Llandudno, 2019. Credit: Wessex Archaeology

Image 8: Conservation of wall paintings at Longthorpe Tower, Cambridgeshire 2019. Credit: English Heritage

Image 9:  Veterans participating in the excavation of the battlefield of Waterloo, Belgium. Credit: Waterloo Uncovered

Image 10: Britannia on the water. Credit: Britannia Sailing Trust