accessibility – American Alliance of Museums

Normalizing Diverse Ways of Thinking: Museum Experiences for All Learners

By Susan Letourneau, Wendy Martin and Sam Tumolo

Museums hope to attract and support people who learn in many different ways, including those who are neurodivergent learners. But most museum activities aren’t designed with these potential participants in mind. What if they were? The …
Visitor Services as Strategy: The Institution-Wide Benefits of Welcoming

By Debbie Queen

Most museum professionals can tell you exactly where visitor services sits on the organizational chart. Usually somewhere near the front entrance. Often operational. Sometimes overlooked. But after more than 20 years working across …
Achieving the Unforgettable: Engaging the Senses with Whole-Body Learning

By Tedi Asher, Matthew McNerney, and Sarah Cole

“Hey!! They just made the ruler larger!” It had been more than a month since my (Matthew McNerney’s) 5-year-old son visited the Field Museum’s iconic “Underground Adventure,” a worm’s-eye journey into the soil where children meet the …
When HR is the Barrier: Identifying Problems and Solutions

By Michelle Martin Bonner

After more than two decades of experience in human resources (HR) and diversity, inclusion, and belonging roles, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing the inner workings of these departments across a diverse array of sectors, …
Three Core Values That Will Boost Your Museum Writing

By Trey Whitted

Writing well is essential for communicating information in any field, especially in educational institutions like museums. However, with the wide range of roles museum professionals fill, it can be difficult to define what writing well …
Out of Sight: How Museums Can Harness the Blind Perspective to Enrich Visitor Experiences

By Violet Rose Arma

Do blind people enjoy visiting museums? Yes and no. Cheryl Fogle-Hatch and Don Winiecki captured this complicated reality in 2020, when they conducted a survey of blind adults discussing their feelings about museums. Here were a few of the …
Improving Access to Employment for People with Disabilities

By Dana Spencer Winfield

The museum sector is working to increase the diversity of our workforce through a variety of ways: for example, how we craft position requirements, word job announcements, and conduct interviews. That is helping museums make some progress …
Mind the Accessibility Gap

By Meredith Peruzzi

When we talk about equity, diversity, and inclusion in museums, we have a usual list of groups we mention: Black and Indigenous people, other people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, unhoused people, socioeconomically disadvantaged people, and …
Prioritizing Image Descriptions and Digital Equity at Cooper Hewitt

By Ruth Starr

During this time of crisis, it has never been more important to center access, equity, and inclusion in our response to the unknown. As we adapt quickly and shift our focus online, it is essential that we prioritize and commit to …
4 Tips for Effectively Reaching Visitors with Disabilities

By Dani Doughty

It’s been nearly three decades since the original Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was signed into law. Since the protective act was ratified, great strides have been made not just to prevent discrimination against people with …