Museums for Us
Exploring Museums with People with
Intellectual Disabilities
Inclusive museums
But what is a museum?
Darius
That one came
out of nowhere.
I got him!
Elephant,
elephant!
Big Claws. I
got him!
I liked the
elephant, the
giraffe, the
monkey…
Keith
What worked?
What the exhibitions were about
How the exhibitions were put together
The public space of the museum
Inclusive Museum
• Context changing not person changing
Just objects?
No museum could fully respond to such a challenge of
associating the scopic with the haptic without itself becoming
Other to the idea of what museumness is all about. This
challenge is met by deflecting it into the realm of the signified
and by treating Otherness as a form of difference and
responding to it in that way. Access practices can become
part of what museums are all about providing they do not
undermine the conditions of possibility of the museum
displaying and conserving upon which the idea of the modern
museum rests.
(Hetherington 2002, p. 1990-200)
Understanding inclusion
• Broader reading of ‘the museum’
• Ideas, experiences, atmospheres and
networks
Why come to museums?
Same reasons as anyone else might come…
To see something you know you are already interested
in or know about
Deion Hawkins:
Captain Planet
saved the
world!
Deion Hawkins:
Tom and Jerry
went to the
moon
Steven Powe: When I
saw the sculptures, it
made me wonder if I
could do sculpture. If I
could do an exhibition,
I'd do an exhibition in
the Sculpture Garden.
to share important ideas with your
children
Pam Ogaugha: So we are telling our children who have these
disabilities and these differences, letting them know how great they
are as individuals and how much they have the are we going to
convince them? You need to go out and see it … how will she
believe it if she doesn’t see it?
to consider career options based on an
interest or talents
Victoria Watson: It started good
actually. I like it. Especially in
this area which is more open
for the kids to come and enjoy
themselves. I like it so far...let's
see how the rest of the day go.
Steven Powe: I come to the
Smithsonian because I'm
training to take pictures, it
part of the work I'm doing at
New Vision. I hope I might
get a job in photography.
What made a good visit? And what can make
the visit go wrong?
• Interested, surprised and interactive
• Being included: African American history and
disability history
• Making Connections
Interesting, surprised,
interactive
Not enough African American history
Donna Njoku : When you
educating children you want
them to feel that they are
included it so when they are
walking around they are seeing
Indian children, they are see
African American children they
are see Caucasian children.
Pam Ogaugha: What about
jazz... Jazz is American,
country music is American.
Classical Music in
European.
Pam Ogaugha: It's a sensitive thing …blacks used to be
called baboons, you’re primitive, you’re not human
that's the only thing you can spot light. When I go
places I want to see me. When I tell my children about
the proud heritage and the culture. You need to see
where you've been. And we're Americans. Even though
African Americans were kept separate we still had a full
and thriving life.
Making connections
• To things you already know and are interested
in…
• Support making connections
Exploring
Ideas…
What
• Relevant things to see
• Inclusive content
• Involve people in developing content
What and how
•
•
•
•
•
•
Clarity
Visual communication
Surprise and creativity
Interaction
Multi-sensory
Use simulators more as interpretation
Being there
• Making a public space where you don't feel
judged
• Chill out spaces
• Make sure security guards understand
• Safe spaces that enable exploration both for
people independently and for exploration
beyond your group
• Pre- and post-visit materials
When did access happen?
What is access?
Access, like inclusion, is more than about place. It has a
quality of experience dimension. It is more ambitious than the
old integration option of being allowed in (as long as one fits
and behaves). It carries connotations of rightful and active
participation. (Searle and Nind 2010, Location 481-89)
Access ‘is rarely a one off event of getting over the threshold
and amore a process of rallying various support mechanisms
in negotiating a myriad of obstacles to meaningfully
participant and derive benefit from something. Thus access
happens in the minutiae of interactions in which new words
are explained, new practices are modelled, social episodes
are opened up, small problems are solved and so on. (Searle
and Nind 2010 Location 554-62)
Tangible
• Museum terms – good interpretive
planning, multi-sensory routes through
exhibitions, creative and surprising.
• Ideas and histories which are relevant to
people and about the diversity of the
communities museums serve.
• Work which is best done in collaboration
with people who use or might come to use
museums.
Intangible effects
 Atmosphere
 Welcoming
 Accepting public spaces ownership
Access extends beyond the museum
• What made the museum interesting and engaging
linked to experiences beyond the museum.
• Who you are with and how they facilitated your
visit…
• Where the visit failed – young people had not
context and the people they were with also didn’t
have a context.
• Build supportive access networks… museum building
links with community organisations, schools,
teachers and teaching assistants.
Museums for us
Our museums