Photo: Courtesy of Liuzhou Industrial Museum
Following a thorough evaluation of submitted cases from 60 museums across China,
MKsport the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Regional Office for East Asia recently announced 16 selected Chinese museum cases for their innovative practices in accessibility and inclusion. The beneficiaries of these museums' practices are diverse and include individuals with disabilities, children and neurodiverse populations.
Featuring institutions such as the Palace Museum, the Memorial Museum of 1911 Revolution, Liuzhou Industrial Museum and Liangzhu Museum, the selected sites have various focuses, but share one endeavor - making feasible and detailed accessibility plans that cater to a broad range of visitors requiring accessible services.
Take the Liuzhou Industrial Museum as an example. In addition to installing signage for on-site visitors with visual and hearing impairments, the museum has also complied a handbook of industrial terms with corresponding sign language gestures.
Additionally, a "barrier-free WeChat account" was launched to be an "informative entry assisting offline visitors requiring sign language services," Liu Yinglin, the museum's director of the Education and Publicity Department, told the Global Times. She added that the museum also promotes "educational programs" and "cultural and creative products" catering to visually impaired visitors.
"We have invited visually impaired students as guides to introduce their experiences at the museum to the public. Also, we launched a series of industrial-themed postcards featuring braille," Liu remarked.
Besides evaluating museums' accessibility, UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia has also encouraged museums to expand their dedications to accessible services of other areas such as the exhibit and digital accessibility.
The former stresses increasing visitors' interactive experiences through designs that are touchable and multi-sensory, whereas museums' digital accessible services are encouraged to cover accessible websites, virtual exhibitions, mobile applications and age-friendly designs.
In 2017, the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, one of the 16 selected exemplars, started to establish smart accessible services. It has installed a barrier-free national treasure experience zone where visually impaired visitors can learn the stories behind relics by touching their replicas. Meanwhile, hearing-impaired visitors can also interact with electronic screens to access sign language explanations.
In the future, the museum plans to introduce audio guide devices equipped with AI-powered human-computer interaction programs.
This initiative aims to make it easier for hearing impaired and visually impaired visitors to explore exhibition halls freely and independently, according to the Qianjiang Evening News.
"Museums foster an integrated approach to cultural heritage as well as the links of continuity between creation and heritage. They also enable various people, notably local communities and disadvantaged groups, to rediscover their roots and approach to other cultures," said Professor Shahbaz Khan, director and representative of UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia.
Duong Bich Hanh, programme specialist for culture at UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia, told the Global Times that these cases "will also form the basis for establishing a guideline and training materials to encourage other museums to take actions to increase access for persons with disabilities in the future."
These Chinese museums represent fruitful outcomes of a joint initiative launched in October 2024 by UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia and the Chinese Museums Association.
This initiative called for Chinese museums to submit innovative practices in accessibility and inclusion. The call is a key activity under UNESCO's "Accessible Museums for Persons with Disabilities" project that is supported by the United Nations Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The 16 selected cases are to be promoted on global scale and featured in UNESCO's publication Museums for Everyone: Innovative Practices in Accessibility and Inclusion, with plans to be released in the first half of 2025.
