Jo Gillam: Accessing heritage & engaging with new audiences

11 million Britons have a limiting long-term illness, impairment or disability. [i]  54% say they avoid going to new places when they can’t find the relevant information before visiting. [ii]  In today’s digital age, this means basic access information which helps ease social isolation and depression, and prevents visiting disappointment, frustration, embarrassment, and distress, is unavailable on many venues’ web and social media sites. Even excluding people who have temporary or unregistered access needs [iii] , that’s 6 million potential visitors lost to museums and galleries. Multiply that by all the friends and family who can’t or won’t go without the person concerned, and it’s a huge moral and economic deficit. All my life, I’ve need to know in advance what sites will be like to gauge whether relatives with physical and cognitive disabilities will be able to access and enjoy them. As a heritage worker with particular experience of learning services and volunteer ...

30 years ago, my brother was labelled as unfriendly, difficult, and having a ‘mental handicap’. Today, he’s described as autistic with learning disabilities. Autism is certainly a word that many people recognise now but how many know what it means? How can your museum be more welcoming to people with autism and their families? What is autism and who can have it? Autism is a lifelong condition thought to be caused by a combination of genetics, brain development and part of the natural variety among brains. i.e. ‘neurodiversity’. It affects 1 in a 100 people in the UK - women as well as men. There’s no evidence that it’s more prevalent than before or that any ethnic or socio-economic group has a greater propensity to it than others. Autism isn’t a learning difficulty, a learning disability, or a mental health problem. Some people with autism do have mental health issues, not least because they can find life extremely stressful. About 50% of people with autism have a learning d...