Mission & Institutional Planning
Community Engagement
Cultures & Literacies Through Art for the 21st Century (CALTA21) is a dynamic online environment that helps empower adult immigrants and their families through collaborations with museums, institutions of higher education and literacy organizations.
Community + Museum: Guidelines for Collaboration
These guidelines were developed over a three-year period of collaboration between Native and non-Native museum professionals, cultural leaders and artists. The guidelines are intended as a resource for community members working in collaboration with museums.
The Center for the Future of Museums TrendsWatch from 2012 includes an item on developing programs for senior citizens.(PDF, 28 pages – see page 17)
Editable Cultural Equity Statement
Americans for the Arts shares their Cultural Equity Statement and provides downloadable resources to create one.
Engaging and Empowering New Immigrants through Art
The Center for the Future of Museums blog post from June 28, 2010 featured how The Nassau County Museum of Art used an IMLS grant to fund CALTA21, a model initiative bringing English language learning into the museum setting.
Interpreting Native American History and Culture
Interpreting Native American History and Culture at Museums and Historic Sites, available through Rowman & Littlefield, features ideas and suggested best practices for the staff and board of museums that care for collections of Native material culture, and who work with Native American culture, history, and communities.
A practical guide for both individual activists and organizations to learn more about Intersectionality and its principles, and to provide a selection of activities to explore practice around inclusiveness.
The National Park Service shares LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History. Each chapter is written and peer-reviewed by experts in LGBTQ Studies.
In this Editions publication from the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI), editors Karen Coody Cooper and Nicolasa I. Sandoval assembled stories—from an Alutiiq community on Alaska’s Kodiak Island to Hopi people in Arizonas—that speak to the concerns and aspirations that unite indigenous peoples in the lands known now as the Americas.(PDF, 121 pages)
Museums as Site of Social Action (MASS Action)
Created as a collaboration between the Minneapolis Institute of Art and practitioners across the museum field, MASS Action provides a space for action-oriented dialogues around equity and inclusion. It offers free, downloadable resources for building equity in the field, including an organizational readiness assessment and a comprehensive toolkit featuring insights on both theory and practice.
National Dialogues on Immigration
Models from leading history museums and cultural centers across the country for engaging communities in discussions about immigration employing innovative dialogue tools.
Next Practices in Diversity and Inclusion
The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) presents Next Practices in Diversity and Inclusion, a collection of 51 submissions from AAMD members exploring a wide range of ways that art museums are striving to become more diverse and inclusive places, both inside and out.
The Portland Children’s Museum shares its commitment to diversity and inclusion.
Practicing Civic Engagement: Making Your Museum into a Community Living Room
In this paper, published in the Journal of Museum Education, July 2013, Stephen Long proposes a definition of community and makes the case that civic engagement can help a museum address pressing social concerns and needs.
Racial Equity Impact Assessment Toolkit
Race Forward, The Center for Racial Justice Innovation, created this website to shares its Racial Equity Impact Assessment (REIA). The REIA provides a systematic examination of how different racial and ethnic groups will likely be affected by a proposed action or decision.
This site offers tools, research, tips, curricula, and ideas for people who want to increase their own understanding and to help those working toward justice at every level – in systems, organizations, communities, and the culture at large.
Cecilia Garibay, discusses how museums are using research to better engage diverse audiences in this January/February 2011 ASTC Dimensions post.
Strengthening Immigrant Voices through Museum & Community College Partnerships
In this Winter 2013 volume of Diversity & Democracy (a journal of the Association of American Colleges and Universities), Margot Edlin, Patricia Lannes and Kitty Bateman discuss how they used an IMLS grant to fund CALTA21, a model initiative Lannes developed to bring English language learning into the museum setting.
In this September/October 2015 Museum magazine article, Day Al-Mohamed discusses the lack of representation for disability narratives. (PDF, 4 pages)
In this September/October 2015 Museum magazine article Annie Leist, Sheri Levinsky-Raskin, Barbara Johnson Stemler explore issues of accessibility and inclusion from the perspective of visitors, staff and facility or program users in museums, libraries, archives and other cultural institutions.
Institutional Planning
Bringing Self-Examination to the Center of Social Justice Work in Museums
In this January/February 2016 Museum magazine article, Rose Paquet Kinsley and Aletheia Wittman of the Incluseum, discuss how museums should be introspective as well as outward looking outside when aligning with social justice causes. (PDF, 6 pages)
Cultural Competence Learning Institute (CCLI)
The Cultural Competence Learning Institute is a partnership between the Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, the Association of Science and Technology Centers, the Association of Children’s Museums, and the Garibay Group that helps museums boost their organizational capacity around diversity, inclusion, and culture. The Institute focuses its tools and resources around three 21st-century skills that are essential to effective inclusion practice: Creativity and Innovation, Communication and Collaboration, and Global Awareness.
Information on Disability through the American Community Survey
The U.S. Census Bureau provides several tools to help communities and organizations determine the needs for disabled persons in their area.
In this January/February 2016 Museum magazine article, AAM prints Johnnetta Betsch Cole’s powerful keynote address at the Alliance’s 2015 annual meeting in Atlanta, GA. (PDF, 7 pages)
Keynote Address by Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole
The Alliance shares this video of the General Session Keynote Address by Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole from the American Alliance of Museums 2015 annual meeting in Atlanta, GA.
Museums As Site of Social Action (MASS Action)
Created as a collaboration between the Minneapolis Institute of Art and practitioners across the museum field, MASS Action provides a space for action-oriented dialogues around equity and inclusion. It offers free, downloadable resources for building equity in the field, including an organizational readiness assessment and a comprehensive toolkit featuring insights on both theory and practice.
Museums & Society 2034: Trends and Potential Futures
The Center for the Future of Museums and Reach Advisors share this discussion paper from 2008 exploring the challenges society and museums face in the areas of demographic change, globalization, new forms of telecommunication, and the consumption of culture. (PDF, 20 pages)
Race Equity and Inclusion Action Guide
The Annie E. Casey Foundation shares this downloadable Race Equity and Inclusion Action Guide.
We Must Decolonize Our Museums
Recorded at TEDxDirigo in November 2016, Cinnamon Catlin-Legutko shares the urgency of museum decolonizing practices and offers three ways to approach the decolonization of museums.
Visitor Services
Making Your Meetings Deaf-Friendly
A workshop in advance of a National Association of the Deaf conference shows how meeting and hospitality professionals can improve their Deaf-friendly customer service.
Tips On Interacting With People With Disabilities
The United Spinal Association shares this online booklet for anyone who wants to interact more effectively with people with disabilities.
Website Accessibility
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) has developed a number of resources to help organizations develop more accessible websites.
American Alliance of Museums Strategic Plan
The Alliance 2016-2020 Strategic Plan includes initiatives on Accessibility, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
American Society of Association Executives
The American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) provides a webpage on its site exclusively related to accessibility of meetings at the ASAE offices.
Developing Accessible Websites
The University of Washington provides information about accessible websites.
Make Your Website Accessible Before You Are Forced To
In this July/August 2016 Museum magazine article, Sina Bahram shares his views regarding compliance with the upcoming changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) related to websites. (PDF, 2 pages)
Making Your Website Senior Friendly
The National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine has a checklist for making websites senior-friendly. The 15-page document lists ways to design readable text and navigational features. It also makes suggestions for style and use of popular features like photos, videos, and audio. (PDF)
Museum Accessibility Research: Publications and Advisory Board
Art Beyond Sight embarked on a series on Museum Accessibility Research and Development Projects in 2008. These projects are based on ongoing and expanding partnerships with large metro area art museums, and a growing number of smaller museums, university museums and historic sites.
Art Beyond Sight shares this video on YouTube showing how the JAWS (Job Access With Speech) screen reader works on the home page of the Handbook for Museums and Educators.
These guidelines were implemented at the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
Web Accessibility Guidelines Checklist
This checklist can help build accessibility into the website development process.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
The World Wide Web Consortium provides information on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
WebAIM shares this great resource to divers deep into technical accessibility.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has a Web Accessibility Initiative and numerous resources; including guidelines, quick tips, checklists, techniques, and training materials for making web content accessible.