Evaluating Accessibility in Museums: A Practical Guide

Evaluating Accessibility in Museums bridges accessibility and evaluation through stories that highlight how diverse organizations have developed and grown accessibility initiatives and the vital role that evaluation played in their evolution. Authors share how they worked from a variety of institutional starting points to design programs, exhibitions, and accommodations for visitors with disabilities and how these initiatives were evaluated both during and after implementation. Read about the impact of this work on disabled (and non-disabled) audiences, what staff learned, and conversations about iterating and moving forward. Each story demonstrates how evaluation created more responsive institutions that value diverse communities, invite communication and collaboration, and more meaningfully impact visitors.

About the Author :
Laureen Trainer, principal of Trainer Evaluation, curated a blog series for the Committee on Audience Research and Evaluation, where she published nineteen blogs and worked with dozens of authors. She co-edited a volume of the Journal of Museum Education (JME), Empowering Museum Educators to Evaluate (Volume 40), and has been a JME peer reviewer for over a decade. Involved in the museum world since 1997, Trainer started as an educator and transitioned to the role of internal evaluator before ultimately becoming an independent, external evaluator. Trainer is passionate about evaluation as a tool for continual learning, adaptation, and engaging stakeholders and community members.

Review :
Evaluating Accessibility in Museums is a unique and timely volume covering an important, growing area of museum practice. Centering evaluation in museums as a crucial component of understanding and measuring impact, editor Trainer has curated an illustrative and diverse set of topics that highlight how museums are implementing practices that demonstrate their value to disability communities, inviting collaborations with members of these communities to develop accessible practices, and reiterating to improve their offerings in this area. This efficient, pragmatic text is geared toward museum practitioners but would be a beneficial resource for students in museum studies and allied fields. Recommended. Undergraduates through faculty, but especially practitioners. These persuasive case studies demonstrate the positive link between disability representation and creating engaging museum experiences for everyone. Evaluating Accessibility in Museums: A Practical Guide fills a crucial gap in the literature, offering a much-needed resource for museum professionals seeking to improve their accessibility through evaluation. Using a case study approach, the book is practical, relatable, and contains valuable insights. This pioneering work sets a new standard for evaluating and enhancing accessibility in museums.