Services

Consultation and Training Services

Welcoming People with Disabilities: Creative Approaches to Accessibility & Inclusion

ABS provides a host of services for museums, galleries, cultural institutions and arts organizations through partnership opportunities, training sessions and inclusive environment assessments, inclusive technology assessment and feedback, user experience research, and ongoing consulting options. Museum Consulting Menu

At no cost you can utilize the materials we developed for our consultancies and our model programs and self-train. If you do, we appreciate your sharing feedback with us through our Google Docs platform. Or, you can hire us as consultants to provide customized solutions for your institution that will also benefit the field. All ABS’s materials have the Creative Commons License.

Past and current clients include the following:
Chicago Cultural Arts Council
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Fine Arts Museums of SF
Grounds For Sculpture
Guggenheim Museum
Historic House Trust
Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum
Museum of Fine Arts Houston
New Museum
Ringling Museum of Art
Rubin Museum of Art
Seattle Art Museum
Shedd Aquarium (Chicago)
Whitney Museum of American Art

Training for Educators and Therapists and Providing Programs for Students with Disabilities

Art Therapy
Introductory level classes to Artistic Practice
Learning Daily Living Skills through the Arts

Needs Assessments and Strategic Planning
Inclusive Environment Assessment

Inclusive Technology Assessment and Development
User Experience Research

Whether your cultural institution is just getting started with access and inclusion initiatives or are looking to ramp-up existing practices, Art Beyond Sight can identify opportunities to become more welcoming to visitors and employees with disabilities. We’ll review your physical space, policies, programs, promotional materials, and other factors and make recommendation on how to sustain, scale-up, and improve initiatives that promote an inclusive environment. We help operationalize this assessment by developing an actionable strategic plan that is conducive to your budget and internal capacity.

Staff Training

Disability Awareness – Highly recommended
Know Your Audience: Visitors who are Blind or Have Low Vision

A well-trained staff serves as the cornerstone for a truly inclusive environment. Art Beyond Sight is experienced in training department leaders to understand how accessibility and inclusion relates to their roles and responsibilities, and guides leadership in taking an interdepartmental approach to enhancing inclusion throughout an organization. ABS also trains front-line staff, from visitor information personnel to docents to security guards, to help them create experiences that are enjoyable and responsive to visitors with disabilities. And of course, we teach staff how to enhance experiences to arts and culture through tactile access and verbal description.

Verbal Description

Verbal Description and Visual Language
Verbal Description and Visual Language Facilitated Practice and Feedback Sessions

ABS’s roots are grounded in providing access to the arts for people who are blind and have low vision. Although our work has evolved to include all disabilities, our verbal description work has remained the foundation for what we do. Verbal description uses non-visual language to convey the visual world. It can navigate a visitor through a museum, orient a listener to a work of art, or provide access to the visual aspects of a performance. Engage Art Beyond Sight to make your exhibits accessible to people who are blind and have low vision.

Tactile Experiences

Facilitating Effective Tactile Experiences
Creating Effective Tactile Graphics and Handling Objects
Multi sensory Teaching Strategies for All Audiences
Tactile Experience and Multi sensory Teaching Facilitated Practice

Customized Training

The Inclusive Field Trip
Accessible Artmaking in Gallery and Studio
Inclusive School Programs and the Expanded Core Curriculum
Accessible Public Programs
The Aging Visitor
Involving Living Artists in Inclusive Museum Experiences
The ADA and Other Accessibility Law
Ongoing accessible and inclusive program development and evaluation
Recommendations for more inclusive exhibition design, public programs, or other museum areas beyond education and visitor services
Development of a disability audience base and an access advisory board, and integration of people with disabilities into your board and institution’s committees.
Support in seeking potential employment or internship candidates with disabilities, as well as advising on onboarding and accommodation questions
Assistance and advising on outreach and community engagement with local and national disability organizations
Assistance and advising in developing multi-sensory handling objects and tactile graphics, including raised-line drawings or 3-D printing.
Assistance and advising in developing materials in alternative formats and accessible digital media products

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