Argyropoulos, V., Nikolaraizi, M., Chamonikolaοu, S., Kanari, Ch. (2016). Museums and people with visual disability: An exploration and implementation through an ERASMUS+ Project.(pp. 4509-4516). Proceedings of EDULEARN2016 Conference, 4 - 6 July, 2016, Barcelona, Spain. (original) (raw)

The Inclusion of People with Visual Impairments in Art Museums, a Study Case in the Modern Art Centre in Lisbon

This article aims to reflect on the impact of social inclusion of people with visual impairments in today’s art museums; what new approaches are being introduced? What developments are occurring in the relationship between the museum and the public with disabilities? What improvements can be expected in the access to the museum? The article is based on a case study conducted in the Modern Art Centre of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon, with a group of people with visual impairments. The participants were challenged to “see”2 three artworks of the collection of three Portuguese artists: Amadeo de Souza Cardoso, Mário Eloy and Helena Almeida. The rapprochement between the artworks and people with visual impairments was developed through multi-sensory teaching materials to try and create a more expressive and appealing visit to the museum. In connection to this, the following article will be focused on the methods that have shown most effective in the analysis of artworks by people with visual impairments. In the end of this research, the results were clear: the participants could prove that people with visual impairments are a potential audience of the art museums in a society which is in search of the true inclusion.

Kanari, Ch. & Argyropoulos, V. (2014). Museum educational programmes for children with visual disabilities.

The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum 6 (3), 13 – 26. Abstract: There has been an increasing awareness on behalf of museums for visitors with disabilities during the last decades. Museums in Greece have acknowledged the right of people with disabilities to access to cultural heritage information and exhibitions and so they have taken some significant actions in order to facilitate their access via special organized programmes and services. Nevertheless, the access of people with visual disabilities remains a challenge for the majority of Greek museums. The research aim of the present study was to investigate the experience of archaeological museums' services in organizing educational programmes specifically for students with visual disabilities. Additionally, special education teachers of students with visual disabilities were asked to participate in the study by describing their experiences from school visits to museums. Based on quantitative and qualitative data (questionnaires and interviews), the results revealed that archaeological museums had limited experience in specialized museum programmes for students with visual disabilities and underscored the nonsystematic collaboration between museums and schools. Finally, the results of the present study are strongly linked to implications in terms of specialized museums' programmes and ways of collaboration between museums and schools which raise pedagogical and ethical issues, such as inclusion and equal opportunities.

MUSEUMEDU 5 Museums, education and people with disabilities

Guest editors: Vassilios Argyropoulos & Charikleia Kanari Available at http://museumedulab.ece.uth.gr/main/el/node/429 The fifth issue of the JOURNAL MUSEUMEDU, Museums, education and people with disabilites, edited by Associate professor Vasilios Argyropoulos and Dr Charikleia Kanari, was published in October 2017. It presents articles (in Greek and in English) that focus on the access of people with disabilities in cultural centres such as museums and monuments. This special issue seeks to reveal contemporary approaches that are related to the rights of people with disabilities for equal access to cultural goods, to the dimensions and the presuppositions of access as well as to aspects relevant to learning and social inclusion in museums regarding people with disabilities.

Argyropoulos, V. & Kanari, Ch. (2015). Re-imagining the museums through “touch”: Reflections of individuals with visual disability on their experience of museum-visiting in Greece.

ALTER, European Journal of Disability Research 9, 130-143. Abstract: The research aim of the present study was to investigate the experiences of individuals with visual disability regarding their visits to museums. To obtain relevant information, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 Greek individuals with visual disability aged between 19–59 years. The participants highlighted issues relevant to factors which facilitated or/and hindered their accessibility to Greek museums, such as escorts, museum tour guides, tactile access, prohibition signs “do not touch”, museum services and museum websites. Also, they referred to positive and negative emotions which were associated with their museum visits. Finally, they made suggestions aiming to improve the participation of people with visual disability to museums.

Museums and Technology: Being Inclusive Helps Accessibility for All

Curator: The Museum Journal, 2013

This paper explores accessibility issues for museums in the context of growing dependence on technology. The background of these issues is described, along with the evolution from physical access to digital access—for example, via the Web—and, increasingly, mobile technology. The authors are people with different disabilities and they describe personal experiences, giving a sense of the various barriers and benefits that are involved. The aim of this paper is to provide museums with a disabled person's point of view, which could help in inspiring improvements for the future. Often the task is one of understanding as much as financial constraints, since many solutions can be implemented at little additional cost.

The accessibility of visually impaired people to museums and art through ICTs

Technium Social Sciences Journal, 2022

Human's involvement with culture is a vital part of his life, but what happens when someone is blind or visually impaired (VI) and how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) help the access to cultural locations? The difficulties and limitations that blind and visually impaired (BVI) persons face while visiting museums or art exhibitions are of high importance. These limitations concern both the access to the location and the perception of the exhibits. This bibliographic research is divided into four main parts. In the first part of our paper we will analyze the difficulties that these people face as visitors in art exhibitions and how their disabilities affect an autonomous visit. Afterwards, we will refer to the importance of the disability arts when combined with ICTs. In the next part, we will mention the projects that are already applied or those for which efforts have been made globally for their implementation. These will be accompanied by recorded feedback from blind and visually impaired visitors. Finally, we will make a scheduled visit to the Tactual Museum of Athens in order to collect material on practices used in their exhibition and we shall record reactions from visually impaired visitors.

Blindness in Art Museums: A Portuguese Case Study

Journal of Museum Education, 2020

This article addresses ways that museums can strengthen programming for audiences who are blind or partially sighted. Through the development and study of a tour for people who are blind or partially sighted conducted at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum-Modern Collection, in Lisbon (Portugal), the author examines other possibilities of access that go beyond the physical and communicative access considering, namely, the importance of the aesthetic experience for this audience access an art work. She argues that aesthetic access is crucial to the reconfiguration of blindness in art museums, leading to a closer relationship between the people who are blind or partially sighted and visual arts.

Accessible Museums for Visually Impaired: A Case Study from Istanbul

Journal of Tourismology, 2019

Freedom to travel is a fundamental human right. Thus, disabled people should be able to travel. Disabilities are divided into subcategories, whereby vision disability is one of them. In the context of museums, there are some implementations for visually disabled people. However, there is still limited empirical investigation on the expectations, satisfaction, and challenges of visually impaired travelers. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the expectations, needs, and challenges of visually impaired people visiting museums. In this vein, the study draws on a qualitative research approach employing data from visually impaired individuals to understand those individuals' perceptions, needs, and challenges. The study offers several practical implications to help museum managers enhance the experience of visually impaired visitors.

People with disabilities visit art museums: an exploratory study of obstacles and difficulties

Journal of Heritage Tourism, 2009

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Ideas for future museums by the visually impaired

The subject of study in this paper is the material created by visually impaired participants in two workshops and the approach of bringing participatory design to museums for this particular user group. These two workshops were organized as part of the research activities of the project Äänijälki 1 .