Expanding Accessibility in Museums: A Conversation with Ross Edelstein
We recently interviewed Ross Edelstein, a pioneer in the museum industry in creating accessibility on all levels. Ross is autistic, and brings his lived experience into the lens of his work with museums and accessibility. Below are some key themes from our conversation that are great ideas to incorporate into your own accessibility work.
[The interview excerpts below have been edited for length and clarity]
1. Disability is not a monolith and neither is accessibility.
Everybody is different and every disability is different. Even within the same diagnoses there are always many different ways that disability shows up for people, and therefore many different needs.
Claire: In a perfect world, how do you envision inclusion and accessibility in a museum?
Ross: It's going to have to have several layers, because one of the things that people often forget with disability is that disability is not a monolith…if we were actually gonna make everything perfectly inclusive and equitable, it would have to be multiple systems changing…I often consider accessibility as something explicitly different than being inclusive to disabled people. I mean, welcoming is usually what I say to disabled people. Because accessibility is just following the [Americans with Disabilities Act or ADA] law, checking boxes.
2. Offering choices increases accessibility and inclusion.
Having multiple choices for how visitors can interact with exhibitions increases accessibility, autonomy, and the overall value of the museum experience for everyone— not just disabled people.
Ross shared this example:
Ross: I am a quick reader. I'll read every label in [an exhibition], and I can't remember every word, but I remember every main idea. I also will do some of the interactives, but not all of them. My girlfriend, on the other hand, will read every label completely and want to do every single interactive. If you have different information in those spaces, you're going to end up with situations where people are not going to get the same experience…It is important to make sure that there are multiple ways to get that same interpretive experience if at all humanly possible. Also, a lot of tours are very word focused, so a good [accessibility] option would be touchables and especially touchables that are of the things that you're looking at.
3. Make information accessible at every stage.
Information is accessibility! Realistically, it will be hard to ensure that every accessible tour, or any tour for that matter, will be the exact same, and having information [tour transcripts] ahead of time can help fill in context. Clearly advertising information on the website about accessibility efforts and services is another example of this.
Ross: [Museums need to] provide transcripts of tours if you have them. I know that every tour is gonna always be a little bit different. But if you have a general “these are the things we're gonna cover,” provide that ahead of time if people request it. Don't be stingy about the details that you're giving because information is one of the biggest things that you can do for accessibility.
4. You have a responsibility to continually push for accessibility in all stages of your work.
It can be intimidating to stand up and challenge coworkers to create accessible work spaces, and understandably hard! However, for accessibility to improve, someone on the inside has to take responsibility to continually push for it at every stage of an exhibition, program, or design project.
Ross: You've gotta be pushing people constantly on [accessibility]. You have to be able to stand up for it and keep doing it and keep doing it and keep doing it. It can't just be one and done. “We have the accessibility people come in once in a while” or “We have our evaluators who are advocating for it coming in once in a while.” It has to be consistent. It has to be throughout the process.
5. Be a community partner and advocate!
By showing up and advocating for their community, museums are not only being inclusive, they are strengthening their community partnerships. This is great for accessibility and inclusion as well as gaining more visitors.
Ross: I am an autistic person. I am a disabled person. I am someone who is an expert on disability, and a nationally recognized one at that, but that doesn't mean that I understand what a disabled person in Charlotte will need at a Charlotte museum. I might not understand what someone in San Francisco needs at a San Francisco museum— I'm not going to be a part of that community.
The best places to start are community groups run by disabled people. And one of the easiest ways to do that is Google…It can be even as simple as searching “self-advocacy groups in [your area]” or “disabled activist groups.”…If you can work with those community groups, you're gonna be a lot better off in the long term because they'll work with you…That is something that museums don't do enough. They love to have community partners, but they don't like being a partner with the actual community. If [museums] really want to be inclusive and welcoming, they have to be [inclusive and welcoming] outside of their own walls.
