One in five UK heritage sites have made ‘no improvement’ in online access information for blind and visually impaired, D/deaf, hard of hearing, and neurodivergent visitors in the last four years, finds survey
More than 2,250 museums and heritage sites across the UK provided information for the tracker produced by VocalEyes, Stagetext, Autism in Museums and the Centre for Accessible Environments.
Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, The Heritage Access 2022 report revealed that four years on, one in five UK heritage sites (19%) have made ‘no improvements’ in online access information for blind and visually impaired, D/deaf, hard of hearing, and neurodivergent visitors.That equates to 401 out of 2,250 venues.
Access information - the broader picture
The survey found that overall, 68% of venues mentioned information about accessible toilets on their websites, up from 54% in 2018. Accessible blue badge parking was mentioned by 64% (48% in 2018), while 56% highlighted contact information (up from 39% in 2018). Almost half mentioned lift information (49% up from 35% in 2018), with a third mentioning 'getting there’ information' (32% up from 19%) and 21% mentioning disability awareness training (up from 10% in 2018). The number of venues mentioning changing places toilets had doubled in the four years since 2018 from 4% to 8%.
Information for blind and visually impaired people
The research found that 64% of venues mentioned assistance/guide dogs information on their website (up from 40% in 2018), while a third mentioned large print resources (up from 20% in 2018). There had also been an improvement in mentions of recorded audio-described guides (6% up from 3%), live audio description tours (7% up from 5%) and magnifying glasses (5% up from 4%). However, there was no improvement in mentions of braille resources (10% in both 2022 and 2018) or handling/tactile objects (11% in both surveys).
D/deaf, deafened and hard of hearing people
Almost three in 10 venues had information about hearing loops on their website (29%), up from just 18% in 2018, while 7% had captioning on AV material, up from 3%. Marginal increases were also seen in mentions of transcripts of AV material (5% up from 4% in 2018) and BSL signed tours (4% up from 3%).
How information is displayed on websites
Looking at how heritage websites with access information display this information, the survey found that a third (33%) had one or more documents available for download from the 'access information page'.
The majority of these had access information available on the webpage as well as in the document (84%), while 16% put all the access information just in the downloadable document.
Looking at how heritage venues named this information, the post popular terminology was 'Access Guide' (56%), followed by 'Access Policy' (21%), and 'Access Statement'. The report suggests that the most useful terminology for organisations to use is 'guide', as 'policy' or 'statement' may come across as “confusing or misleading” and without the "welcoming tone of a guide".
To support the heritage industry, Vocal Eyes, an organisation that, brings theatres, museums, galleries, heritage sites and digital media to life for blind and visually impaired people, has launched the Heritage Access benchmark tool to help "identify best practice across different regions and encourage local collaboration and knowledge-sharing between heritage professionals."
VocalEyes chair Joanna Wood added: “Heritage Access 2022 is a real-time measure of the accessibility of the sector: progress in some areas but a long way from equality. It provides a comprehensive guide to the barriers excluding D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent visitors and the solutions to address these.”
You can see the report here
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