Making centres and museums more accessible
Supporting science centres and museums on their journey to becoming fully accessible social spaces, the accessibility website is designed for employees to access resources, case studies and links for further information.
One in five people in the UK have a disability, either visible or hidden. If you look around your facility/experience and do not see that diversity then it means that there are likely to be barriers to access for disabled visitors.
The barrier could be physical such as no accessible toilets or places to rest between exhibits. The barrier may not be physical, for example it could be poor messaging of what the experience will be like. Poor previous experiences at other facilities can make people avoid cultural spaces, as the assumption may be that visiting will be another frustrating experience.
By improving our awareness of how to ensure we design experiences with everyone in mind we can make changes that will make everyone feel welcome in our spaces. This can result in a more representative audience, improved reputation and an increase in footfall and audience engagement.
Diversity and inclusion across Europe
Diversci is a collective of science engagement professionals advocating to push inclusion, equity, diversity and social justice to the top of the strategic agendas of science engagement organisations so that we no longer fail an important part of our audiences and our co-workers. We aim to harvest the collective experiences, efforts and commitment within our network and beyond. Our group is a self-organised, bottom-up initiative that started after the European science centre and science museum conference (Ecsite) in 2016, following a challenging keynote speech by Liz Rasekoala. In 2019 it was awarded a collaborative grant by Ecsite. Since then, it has supported institutions and individuals driving such changes by providing: structured and specific resources, community and capacity building and advocacy.
We do not claim to have all the answers, and we know this work takes a lot of effort and is never complete. We do, however, share a lot of experience and are honest and committed to inspiring individuals and institutions. We invite them, and you, to join this movement for social justice.