Network

A Nordic project - "The Accessibility Network for Museums 2006-2007" was to bring together everybody working on accessibility issues on various levels, and to promote exchanges of experiences and methodological expertise. The primary aim of the ongoing network is to devise concrete improvements to accessibility for museums and related cultural sites.

Several museums from all over the Nordic countries have taken significant steps to improve accessibility and to make it possible for everybody to make optimal use of their space. The ways that people perceive the world around them only become a hindrance and a handicap when inaccessibility outstands.

In the Nordic countries policies on disability issues and culture have acquired an inclusive impetus for the first quarter of the 21st century.

Some museums have already joined the Accessibility Network. These have either experience of or an aspiration towards bringing art and our cultural heritage to everyone, regardless of disabilities. Through their work in the network those who have already worked with accessibility will gain new, well-founded information, while newcomers will have a chance to acquire information and to receive guidance.

The Network comes under the Nordic Council of Disability Organizations, which has its Headquarters in Sweden. It also collaborates closely with the Community Relations and Development Department KEHYSA of the Finnish National Gallery. Coordination work and some of the project management are done by the Nordic Council's Secretariat. The project is now subsidized by the Nordic Cultural Foundation (formerly the Nordic Museum Committee).

Has your museum taken action to improve accessibility or found a new perspective on it? Let us know. And for more information about the project, please contact Project Manager Ingemar Oderstedt at:
ingemar.oderstedt@nsh.se