ACCESS
WHAT OR WHO IS THE BARRIER? A family arrives at the foot of Mértola Castle, Portugal. They have four children. The mobility of one of them, a 10/11-year-old boy, is quite conditioned. One of his brothers picks up the stroller and runs to the top of the steps that lead to the entrance of the castle. The mother supports her son from the arm and they slowly start going up. Halfway, she suggests they take a rest. The boy prefers to continue. He is making an enormous effort to place his foot on the next step. He is tired and his foot is trembling. I do not want to overtake them. I follow them. I go along with their rhythm. Once at the top of the steps, the boy finally takes a rest. His mother moves on a bit, trying to evaluate the difficulty of the rest of the way. I witnessed this ‘ascend to the castle’ at the end of a week where I attended two meetings on museums and accessibility: the annual seminar of GAM – Group for Access to Museums, entitled “Programming for Di versity,” and the 1st Crossborder Encounter of Museum Professionals in Alcoutim, Portugal. A few days before GAM's seminar, I had met with a Polish colleague who asked me: “What do you expect of these meetings?” Among museum professionals, accessibility is more and more of an issue. And the concept of ‘accessibility’ constantly grows and widens. It is not only about being concerned and also obliged to attend to the needs of people with disabilities (physical and cognitive), but to a wide spectrum of intellectual, social and cultural needs of all citizens. It is also about managing and being able to take advantage of people's growing wish and need to be involved in the process of decision-making, so that they may feel represented in the final products museums propose to their audiences (my presentation on this subject in Alcoutim is available on the right-hand column of the ‘Musing on Culture’ blog, under ‘Conferences’). I am writing this text approximately one week after and I realize that the issues that marked me the most in these two meetings and which
149
Posted on October 29, 2012
DESIGN
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUMS