In an article in The Architect's Take, Chris Downey, the blind architect, lists museums alongside public transport hubs as areas of difficulty for people with visual impairments. He says;
"Museums are another area, surprisingly. “But why not? We still belong to society. A blind person might still go to the museum as part of a family outing, with friends, or on their own, and get something out of it while participating in the cultural institution.” Museums today are almost “heroically visual” but that wasn’t always the case. “You can’t touch, feel, or pick up art the way one could in the Renaissance. When museums started forbidding this, there was a huge reaction to it. But doing so helps to understand things physically.”
However this issue is not going completely unnoticed in the Museum world
Ellen Lupton is the Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City. In a 2017 TED talk she discusses curators and their obsession with the visual.
She believes that museums should be more interactive. That there should not be this "Do not touch" precious attitude. She thinks that all senses should be taken into account. She has started to look at how this could be improved through her exhibition; The Senses: Design Beyond Vision .
Another place where this problem was brought to light was in a 2006 lawsuit. The Department of Justice had a lawsuit regarding the accessibility of the International Spy Museum.
“Just being able to walk around doesn’t equal accessibility. Accessibility of content is as important as physical accessibility. What is the visitor experience if you can’t see?”
In fact, accessibility is a lot more than wheelchairs, because people can have different disabilities.
Sound is one aspect that can enhance a museum experience for someone with a visual impairment. This is evident through another quote from Chris Downey. Downey describes one museum space that was memorable to him. This space was the James Turell Skydome at the De Young Museum. He says
"It has an interesting acoustic and feel… simple and elegant, with benches that conform to the body. You can hear your own movement. I don’t think they were trying for that, it just turned out that way.”
Hence the prospect of a museum that tells a story or provides an experience through acoustics is one that could be beneficial to those with or without visual impairments.
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