How to Plan an Accessible Exhibition

We should embrace the opportunity to change. When hosting your next physical exhibition or opening, make it inclusive! This resource from Shape Arts will give you hands-on tips on how to plan an accessible exhibition.

This is a modified version of Shape Arts’ resource, “How to Put on an Accessible Exhibition,” originally published on their website. It’s written in a language informed by the Social Model of Disability .

Shape Arts is a disability-led arts organization that works to improve access to culture for disabled people by providing opportunities for disabled artists, training cultural institutions to be more open to disabled people, and through running participatory arts and development programs. With this guide, Shape Arts want to give curators, programmers, and art organizations an overview of how to plan an accessible exhibition.

Accessibility from the start

Plan in time and have a budget for providing access

Find out in advance exactly how long it will take to secure access – many people are surprised to find that Sign Language Interpreters need to be booked weeks, if not months, in advance.

If you have a choice of locations for the exhibition, go for street level or ground floor – think step-free every time and, if not, ensure there is a lift or a regulation-standard ramp to any areas accessed by steps.

Consider booking Disability Equality Training for yourself, your staff and your co-organizers.

Make sure all areas are accessible

Any areas that will be accessed by visitors should be fully wheelchair accessible, including toilets! Accessible toilets are more than meets the eye – they need to accommodate the wheelchair user, a portable hoist and a PA, with a red alarm cord working, reaching the floor, and next to the toilet.

Remember that spaces that have an intercom for entry are inaccessible to deaf people.

Are you having an open call for the exhibition?

If you’re having a call for artists , ensure this information is presented in an accessible way and specify that the exhibition will be accessible so that disabled artists feel welcome to apply.

Convey the theme or brief accessibly, remembering that disabled people are far less likely to have an institutional art education background owing to its inaccessibility.

Give artists the option of being able to get in touch with you via email or phone should they have questions about the theme or brief, or should they want the information in an alternate format.

Try not to be too rigid about how artists can make submissions – some may wish to do it by video/audio, over the phone or by post for access reasons.

Working with Disabled Artists

Be open about access requirements

At the initial stages of opening up a dialogue with artists, ask them or give them the opportunity to let you know if they have any access requirements that they would like you to be aware of.

Don’t make assumptions

Ask artists how they prefer to communicate – email, phone, Skype, another way?

Don’t assume what access requirements artists have or what their preferred methods of working are – if they request that you do or present something in a certain way, have an accommodating rather than unyielding attitude.

Ask artists how they’d like to be presented or written about – some artists don’t want to be referred to as ‘disabled’, some artists are keen to identify publicly as such, and it all depends on the context and situation.

Make sure your meetings are accessible

When meeting with an artist, ensure the place you’re meeting them in meets any access requirements they have.

Pay disabled artists fairly

It’s common for disabled artists to incur more costs than non-disabled artists in many aspects of their work and lives, yet disabled artists are less likely than non-disabled artists to be paid fairly for their labor. Remember too that disabled people are also far more likely than non-disabled people to experience unemployment, low income and poverty.

Presenting Work Accessibly

Include subtitles

Subtitle any film work that includes speech, or make a transcript available if that’s not possible.

Show artworks at an accessible height

Shape Arts recommend a hang height of 135cm (centre of work) to be accessible.

Consider plinth height too – around 80cm is normally best, unless the work itself is very tall in which case you’ll need a shorter plinth.

Use tactile strips

You may want to stick tactile strips on the floor around a plinth or floor-based work to illustrate its location non-visually.

Provide Audio Description for all works

It’s important to provide Audio Description – a vocal summary of the visual information a sighted viewer would receive from the work – for all the work included. Upload each work’s audio description as an individual sound file to Audioboom, which is a more accessible platform for visually impaired users than Soundcloud, and point visually impaired visitors to this. For more information, see Shape Arts’ resource on art and audio description .

Think about distances

Allow at least 1.3 metres between furniture, plinths and other objects for people who may be using mobility equipment to move around easily and safely.

Put alt text on works online

If you’re also showcasing the work online, make sure you alt text any images of work, or provide a description of them – this would be roughly the same as Audio Description.