More Than Just Ramps: Disability and Accessibility in Museums

Museum exhibitions serve as a bridge between specialized knowledge and the public. When curated well, they can deliver niche information to a diverse range of audiences. While museums are meant to cater to all attendees equally, far too often, they fall short in making their exhibitions accessible to disabled visitors.

In this webinar, Ashley and Maria will discuss current issues of museum accessibility in the US and the UK, examining common flaws in curatorial design and writing, explaining museum applications of disability rights legislation, as well as considering how to make museums more accessible through solutions such as universal design, a technique that seamlessly integrates wheelchair-accessible construction into the overall architectural structure of museums.

Ms Ashley Crawford is originally from San Francisco, California and is currently completing her MA in History of Art at SOAS. As an ambulatory wheelchair user, she has long navigated museums using mobility devices and witnessed first hand many much-needed areas for improvement. Previously, she has earned degrees in art history and musicology from SOAS, Christ Church (Oxford), and Scripps College.