When we talk about the accessibility of museums, it is important to mention the different age groups and their different needs in terms of what cultural institutions offer. It is worth mentioning here the ageing population, children and young people. The main difference relates to the digital skills of young people versus aging adults.
Young people and children come into contact with digitisation on a daily basis, in a variety of situations, so navigating museum websites is not problematic for most of them. The issue is different among older people, aged 65 and over. This is a generation that did not grow up in a digital environment, and therefore real museum visits are more accessible to them.
Thus, the accessibility challenges of museums for young people concern:
- the attractiveness of the exhibitions on view (children and young people are definitely more fond of interactive museums and ‘fun’ multimedia, quizzes, handling of sound and colour, additional workshops, etc.)
- modern educational offer, museum equipment and space management (e.g. projectors, laptops, microphones, screens)
- contact through social media
- the possibility of realising one’s own projects in museums
- image over content, i.e. clear, unambiguous and not too long instructions and descriptions (both during the actual museum tour and when navigating the website)
- trained guides who are able to focus children’s attention and motivate them to visit the museum
- museum exhibitions also outside the building, in the open air
- a website with differentiated offers in different languages (given the multicultural dimension of today’s world)
- organization of multi-generational workshops
In the case of the ageing population, we can speak of the following difficulties they face:
- too complicated to use the museum’s website
- difficulty in navigating freely through the website
- the museum’s over-absorbing interactivity with little text available for reading
- guides who guide visitors through the museum not engaging enough
- a less than engaging offer for older people, a lack of interesting projects
- lack of care and support required by visitors on account of their age
- stereotypical thinking of older people as inactive and with limited needs (stigmatisation)
- access problems from rural areas
- museum infrastructure problems (e.g. clear, legible and illuminated directions, number of stairs)
- lack of resting places
- space surrounding the museum (e.g. access to drinking water)
- lack of cooperation between museums and senior citizens’ institutions
- ticket prices
(b. d.) Strona główna – NIM.
Read publication “Publiczność (w) Muzeum” [“Visitors in Museum”] (in Polish).