The awareness of making cultural activities accessible to everyone

Accessibility

Author: Sustainable Development Association

Accessibility in cultural activities (Photo by Aleksei Naumov, via Istock

Cultural activities enhance people's historical or social development and appreciation. It is the training and improving a person's intelligence, interests, tastes, and skills.

Accessibility is the practice of making information, activities, and environments logical, meaningful, and usable to as many people as possible.

The idea of cultural access encompasses more than just physical accessibility and includes programmatic, attitude, and communication accessibility. The cultural community contributes to the economic diversity and vitality of the wider community. The whole community benefits when a cultural organization takes on the privilege of presenting itself as a mindset, challenge, and accessible to all people.

What’s the activity?

In Flanders Fields Museum (Photo by (c) Milo Profi via Flicker)

Everyone has the right to enjoy cultural activities. However, many people cannot benefit from these activities due to their health conditions or impairments. Local community activities are essential activities in which people with health conditions or impairments have problems using their rights and freedoms. They are designed and carried out mainly for people who do not have people with health conditions or impairments. However, participating in these activities is the right of all people.

A visually impaired person cannot enjoy a painting unless it has an explanation they can hear in the gallery. A hearing-impaired person cannot enjoy digital effects if there are no subtitles. A mentally impairment person cannot enjoy an exhibition label without an easy-to-read version. It is very significant us to to be conscious about this issue and to convey this awareness to people. Therefore, it will be your task to be aware of the fact that culture is accessible to everyone and to convey this awareness to those around you.

What am I going to do?

Your task is as follows;

You should choose an affordable cultural place such as culinary activities, festivals or events, historical or heritage sites, monuments and landmarks, museums and exhibitions in your hometown or surrounding cities;
You should do some research about making culture more accessible topics in general
You should visit the places indicated above
You should interview your local people about whether the cultural places they go to are accessible. You should ask if they notice materials accessible to people with visual, hearing, or physical impairments in museums, art galleries, festivals, and cultural heritage sites etc.

You can ask some questions indicated below.

For blind and Visually impaired visitors, did you see any informative audio recording of the works in the museum with your voice?
For deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors, did you notice any person who knows sign language to help?
For visitors in the autism spectrum, is there any quiet place to make them feel comfortable?

You should collect your data and bring them together. You can write an essay about your research, prepare a visually appealing presentation, or make an infographic. It is up to you how you want to deliver your data.
You will find a template of presentation in the documents section. However, if you know of any other templates, you can use them.

You should share your results on your social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok etc. This way, you will increase the visibility of your research through social media tools.

What will I learn?

Knowledge Acquired:

• Flexibility / Adaptability
• Digital communication
• Knowledge about the problems faced by people with health conditions or impairments

Skills Acquired:

• Teamwork
• Communication Skill like empathy
• Problem-solving

Attitude Acquired:

• Community Engagement
• Awareness
• Understanding
• Accepting

What will I take home?

When you complete the tasks in this quest, your empathy will improve and you will gain awareness about accessibility and inclusion. You will be able to recognize strategies to overcome accessibility barriers and increase your capacity to develop solutions for them. You will be able to contribute your self- development by empathizing the problems faced with people

Assessing yourself by asking the following questions will help you to know the extent of your abilities and to improve upon them.

Did you observe any change when you did the given tasks Has there been a change in your perspective after the completing the tasks?

Resources
Click each section below to see all resources available.

Websites (URLs)

Accessible Guided Tours
https://www.sagetraveling.com/rome-accessible-guided-tours

Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action
http://humanitariandisabilitycharter.org/wp-content/themes/humanitarian-disability-charter.org/pdf/charter-on-inclusion-of-persons-with-disabilities-in-humanitarian-action.pdf

European Accessibility Act
https://www.inclusion-europe.eu/european-accessibility-act

Documents

Frontline Worker Toolkit

Aims and Objectives:

● To assist people with health conditions or impairments with their rich cultural heritage
● To ensure that everybody can have an opportunity to organise, develop and participate in cultural activities and, to this end, encourage the provision, on an equal basis with others, of appropriate instruction and resources
● To provide opportunities to encourage equal participation and inclusion of visually impaired and blind people (as well as other people with health conditions of impairments) in society
● To realize and promote of basic civil and human rights of people with health conditions or impairments

Top tips:

As a front line worker (such as; museum and heritage personnel, librarians, archivists etc), the following tips can help you make your area accessible.

1. Try to find out what people with health conditions or impairments may need.

2. If you buy equipment that will make your work area accessible, consult the people who will benefit from it. For example, if you work at a museum and plan to build a ramp for wheelchair users, ask the people using it and find out what they think.

3. Draw up a profile of users and potential users

4. Organize a survey to attract visitors. Involve users in creating the questions in these surveys. So, before you write anything, seek advice and put it into practice.

5. Consider using open-ended interviews and discussions with users/visitors. This can lead to more honest and transparent feedback. That way, you make sure you are respecting their access requirements

6. Specify your priorities based on what matters most to users/visitors.

7. Provide regular feedback to users. Tell them about what they said to you and what you are changing.

A Toolkit for Museums Working Towards Inclusion
https://www.ne-mo.org/fileadmin/Dateien/public/topics/Museums_as_Social_Agents/Toolkit_for_Museums_working_towards_Inclusion.pdf