A Project Access White Paper with Art Beyond Sight, 2013
by Danielle Linzer and Cindy VandenBosch
Abstract: While museums and cultural institutions have had a clear legal obligation to make their programs, services, and facilities accessible to people with disabilities for decades, educational and professional development opportunities for staff working in the realm of accessibility and inclusion are limited. Access staff may feel isolated within their own institutions, often finding themselves in the position of monitoring and even clashing with colleagues, and may lack resources to stay abreast of evolving best practices, needs, and developments in the field.
By building networks of mutual support, museum professionals and people who have experience with disability can share resources and knowledge, and serve as agents for progressive change to ensure that cultural institutions are welcoming places for all. Founded as an informal working group in the 1990s, New York City’s Museum Access Consortium (MAC) has evolved into an established association of hundreds of museum professionals, advocates, and people with disabilities working to advance and promote accessibility in cultural institutions of all types through education and professional development. Using MAC as a case study, this article traces the consortium’s development, offers guidance on forming peer networks, and examines the benefits of such inter-institutional collaboration.
