Overview
Sensory Resources Guide For Museums started with the Museum Accessibility class in Spring 2020 at NYU created by the NYU Ability Project, an interdisciplinary research space focused on the intersection between disability and technology, as part of the project in collaboration with the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, supported by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
This graduate level course provided an opportunity for students to explore and develop prototypes as solutions to some of the accessibility challenges in museums. The IMLS grant also funded the development of a group of experts to provide input and advice regarding the work completed during this grant. This group included experts from museums and historic sites, called the Core Working Group of Museums and Historic Sites and Disability Advocates to inform the development of the development of the described here prototypes and other grand activities.
Our team was tasked with building solutions for Over-and-Under Stimulating Environments. Some people, including many autistic people and people with other neurological, behavioral, and psychosocial challenges, are negatively impacted by the sensory input they receive. Through visiting NYC museums in person and museums around the world through their websites, extensive scientific and popular literature research, and conversations with our Core Working Group, our team identified discrepancies when implementing sensory resources. Our team learned that museums want to implement accessibility resources but often are unable to do so due to various constraints (budget, resources, bandwidth, etc).
Through this website, we offer template designs for museums and historic sites to use in order to build their own resources. The template suggests and provides a summary of what should be included in sensory kits and how to design them to incorporate museum and historic site content.
Our hope is that the Sensory Resource Guide is standardized, easy to use for museums staff, but more importantly, will help individuals with sensory processing challenges navigate different environmental settings. The suggested resources will provide visitors with the knowledge of what to expect when planning visits to museums and historic sites to optimize their experiences. Through our guide, we aim to increase museum engagement and interaction for visitors with different sensory needs.
This class occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected our final deliverables. We move from physical solutions to digital resources for developing those physical solutions. However, we hope this digital resource is useful when museums and historic sites reopen. We hope that our research will help make the museum more accessible to a wider range of people.
Our Team
Keita Ohshiro, NYU, Tandon, IDM, ko1055@nyu.edu
Bo Byun, NYU, Tandon, IDM, bkb326@nyu.edu
Saarah D’Souza, NYU, Steinhardt, Occupational Therapy, sds693@nyu.edu