Tips for Making Human-Centered Museums

by Joel Sanders, FAIA, JSA/MIXdesign (a resource from the March 18 webinar, "Making Inclusive Museums Now")

• Overlapping Needs: Unlike most accessibility standards in the USA that tend to focus on people with physical disabilities alone, it is vital to consider the needs of a broader spectrum of the population based on the conviction that human experience is constituted by a variety of overlapping factors. For this reason, we consider the relationship between disability neurodiversity, gender.

• Beyond Code Compliance: We advocate for an alternative to the approach that is characteristic of most accessibility standards which tend to provide separate accommodations, like accessible entrances and ramps, that isolate and as a consequence stigmatize people who are different than the norm. Instead, our objective is to create spaces that allow the maximum number of people—individuals, friends, families, and caregivers—to share the public spaces that shape our daily lives while also providing options for people who have unique functional, religious, or privacy needs.

• Designing from the Margins: Human centered design promises to be a catalyst for creativity, so long as we make sure to invite the diverse users who have historically been excluded to the table and allow them to share their unique perspectives. People with different physical, sensory, and social abilities as well as people from different racial, ethnic, and religious communities who engage with the built environment using different faculties, senses, and customs  provide valuable insights that spark design innovation, lessons that will allow us to reimagine museums as immersive, multisensory environments places that welcome each one of us, no matter our identities or embodiments, to encounter works of art using multiple sense perceptions: sight, sound, and even touch.

Human-Centered Museum Resources

Click here to access the Making Inclusive Museums Now report.

In 2019, the Jewish Museum in New York, New York launched new audio tours intended to illuminate the Museum’s collection. Funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the tours bring new perspective to a museum visit through artists’ voices, a variety of lenses grounded in Jewish traditions and rituals, lively conversations with grade-schoolers, and more. The tours are available via the web at Tours.TheJewishMuseum.org and are easily accessible for both on-site and off-site use.

 This month we speak to JiaJia Fei, Director of Digital, and Nora Rodriguez, Interpretive Media Producer, at the Jewish Museum about conception and creation of the tours. 

As the threat of the climate crisis becomes ever more imminent, the importance and benefits of nature to human health become ever more undeniable. Highlighted in books such as “Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness” by Qing Li, various practices of nature therapy are said to improve mental and physical health. A 2018 report from the Nature Conservancy states “a growing body of scientific evidence suggests contact with nature provides a multitude of health benefits...nearby nature provides a positive emotional experience that has been shown to speed up recovery time for hospitalized patients, motivate healthy behaviors such as exercise, and provide therapeutic benefits to people living with mental disorders.” 

Due to the varied and often challenging terrain the natural environment can present (steep grades, unpaved pathways and delicate ecosystems), access to our natural resources for those with physical disabilities has historically been confined to the parking lots and nature centers, restricting their ability to fully partake in the benefits of a natural connection.