A chance for equitable measures…

Accessibility, or can we apply equal standards?

MúzeumCafé 39.

“I know that I and my fellow citizens should be grateful for the special attention and care. After all, I need it. Yet, would you like to be surrounded by so much fuss? There are countries where it is absolutely natural that people with physical disabilities visit public places. In Hungary this is far from being the case. Only a few times have I been able to feel that I am an ordinary visitor at an exhibition, like you. To arrive unnoticed, have a good time, learn and go home inconspicuously.”

The above words came from someone concerned, who to the end of his life was extremely open to the world and especially to the diverse issues of accessibility, despite his deteriorating condition. Mechanical engineer, Sándor Rádai, who died at the age of 78 in 2011, lived with severe physical disabilities as a consequence of polio. He was an internationally recognized expert on accessibility and a founder of the Hungarian National Federation of the Associations of People with Physical Disabilities (MEOSZ). He himself showed that it was possible to lead a full life.

Some decades ago I talked with him about the possibilities of accessibility and the opportunities for physically disabled people to visit museums. He listed examples abroad. He remarked that for most people the notion of an obstacle was identified with limited movement, thus accessibility, for them, mainly related to motor-disabled people. Many people are inclined to forget the others concerned: those with visual and hearing impairment or diminished mental abilities, and those with multiple disabilities. Within each group the manifestation and degree of disability can be very different.

In response, I told him about initiatives made by museums and that the first ‘steps’ had already been made in Hungary’s museums in the mid 1980s. Enthused by Belgian examples, Emese Ugrin introduced art works to visitors with visual impairment in the Christian Museum, Esztergom, Magdolna Berhidai in the Hungarian National Museum, Andrea Felföldi in the Budapest History Museum and my colleagues and I also regularly received groups of children and adults. Pupils of the Primary School for the Blind, adults with visual impairment and the students of the Primary School and Boarding School for Motor-Development on Mexikói Road regularly visited our public collections in organised groups on several occasions a year.

I could also share my then recent experience. Glasgow was designated a European Capital of Culture for 1990 and the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) and the European Blind Union (EBU) held an international meeting in the city. Various projects and a wide range of human inventiveness were presented: besides independent tactile exhibitions (Lighthouse for the Blind of Greece, Athens; Galerie Mladych, Prague) and even a museum established specially for people with visual impairment (El Museo Tiflológico, Madrid) we learnt about initiatives introducing objects with hands-on experience in already existing museums (Ateneum Art Museum, Helsinki; Clemens-Sels Museum, Germany). I was able to report on the Hungarian initiatives at that conference. It was a fantastic feeling that the raised relief maps made by the Cartographical Institute of the Hungarian Army became models to be followed, and also that Vasarely pictures, tested by touching on the spot, were produced with the same technology for visually impaired people.

Although a wide range of examples was presented and although the Council of Europe had become involved in the issues of accessibility on legal and practical levels in the mid 1980s, other countries were far ahead of Hungary with respect to social acceptance and awareness. It was obvious that people with disabilities visited museums and enjoyed the works of art on display. Mini-lifts bridged over the differences of levels in the Louvre, the exhibition in Potsdam’s castle was made enjoyable with the help of scents, tactile objects and copies of clothes, which could to be tried on, and on the occasion of the conference Glasgow University staged a temporary tactile exhibition of objects that could be walked around and looked at by people with motor-disability (A Sense of Touch). Almost all the presentations quoted Article 27.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says: “Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts…”. I later understood the real importance of the declaration: if someone has the right to participate and enjoy the arts, he or she also has the right to access the institutions presenting them and take possession of the objects of art visually, or in a substitute manner without the need to be helped by others.

In the past two decades the improvement in the quality of life, all-over equality and accessibility for people with disabilities have become a standard of civilisation, a matter of prestige and an ethical issue. In 2001 the UN General Assembly summed up its programme of action involving the whole world in 22 points, which try to cover all areas of disabled people’s lives. Point 10 discusses the issues concerning equal opportunities in culture.

Meanwhile, Hungary also made significant steps forward in legislation: Law XXVI/1998 was passed about the rights of disabled people, guaranteeing their equal opportunities. In 1999 a National Programme for People with Disabilities was adopted and it seemed that every public institution was going to become accessible in just a few years. Unfortunately the deadline could not be met, but nevertheless many institutions began to carry out the necessary conversions, either in the framework of a project or in a self-financing manner.

While the idea of accessibility received increased attention, milestones kept appearing regarding public relations in museums. Two temporary tactile exhibitions were held in the Budapest History Museum’s Kiscell Museum, in 1992 and 1993, and one in the Castle Museum in 1995. They were the first exhibitions of art explicitly for people with visual impairment. The Hungarian National Gallery followed suit from 2004, when its permanent exhibitions included some 30 tactile artworks. The Hungarian National Museum and the Museum of Military History increasingly held sessions on special themes or presented certain groups of objects in the museums and at schools for motor-disabled pupils as part of the school curriculum or as an after-school activity.

By the end of the 1990s a significant change of attitude had occurred: the concept of accessibility had become an integral part of long-term planning for museums. Achieving accessibility can cause a real problem for already existing museums which have difficulty even with conventionally operating. The ALFA project has largely changed that, and a certain catching up could begin. Submitting tenders and winning applications have meant a step forward and the demands of local organisations representing people with disabilities and schools have made public collections take this group of visitors into account.

The investment costs of buildings for public purposes which are from the start designed to provide accessibility are only somewhat higher than those built conventionally, and these extra costs, for instance the instalment of more lifts, result in a higher use value for all. Thus in the case of large reconstruction, accessibility pays off in every respect. This principle was followed with the reconstruction of the Hungarian Natural History Museum in 1996 and then with its extension in 2004. The János Thorma Museum in Kiskunhalas made its building accessible during reconstruction in 2011. The new research storage base of the Dezső Laczkó Museum in Veszprém was also made accessible in 2011. Motor-disabled visitors can see the exhibitions from cellar to attic in the Pajor Mansion, the new building of the Ferenczy Museum in Szentendre, thanks to the investment implemented in 2012. The financial cost is repaid, since a museum becoming a more visitor-friendly place attracts a rather large and wide social group, and it must not be forgotten that everyone may be in need of accessibility temporarily, during any part of his or her life. The provision of equal opportunities relates to the fact that a healthy person may face similar problems due to an accident, illness or aging. It is worth installing a ramp, a lift and a wider, more easily opening door for everyone, even young mothers using push-chairs, and not only for motor-disabled people. In Hungary it is still disputed whereas elsewhere it is an accepted fact that an environment meeting the principles and conditions for accessibility is more pleasant, convenient and safer for every member of society.

A detailed survey of a building and its environs represents the first practical stage of ensuring accessibility. It is of great significance that during 2013 the Department for Social, Family and Youth Affairs of the Ministry for Human Resources had a detailed accessibility survey made involving more than 7,000 institutions, including museums, providing public services all over the country, in order to determine the target areas in Hungary for using EU support for accessibility during the next EU budget period. A survey and summary of such degree and depth has never before been made in Hungary. A questionnaire was compiled with the organisations of the disabled and with respect to legal regulations. The questionnaires are still being evaluated, yet in order to prepare recommendations and to see the issues in their complexity I think it is worth looking at the questions, which took into account both the already existing accessibility of buildings and the conversions required to achieve full accessibility.

The site of public service – narrowing it down to the exhibition space of a museum in our case – can involve one or more levels. What can be done to deal with a difference of 5-15 steps or perhaps several storeys. The survey offers four choices: steps, ramps, stair lifts and conventional lifts.

The quantity of stairs, their width, the height of the steps, the quality and markings of the flights of stairs, the banisters – to what extent they are only decorative or serve as support – were all part of the survey. It is actually these tiny details that may determine accessibility in the case of different degrees of disability.

Until about half a decade ago the least social attention was paid to people who are deaf or hard of hearing. No wonder the survey focused on the needs of people with hearing impairment with respect to communication with questions such as whether lip-reading was possible (it partly depends on lighting conditions), if there was an installed induction loop or some other device. It would be advisable for larger public institutions, at least, to employ sign-language interpreters. A remarkable example can be seen in several museums in Austria, moreover with temporary exhibitions which move to different locations annually. Besides easily legible exhibition texts in large letters, a sign-language interpreter provides information on video screens, which can be made audible at the push of a button.

Accessible public conveniences in a building are among the unavoidable, major investments, at the same time as constituting a basic expectation.

They are available in many museums, yet the first obstacle is to get in – because they are often locked. Why? So that the cleaning staff have less to do? Or is it feared the installation might be damaged? Or perhaps the healthy would use it – I don’t see anything wrong about that; all the more so, since toilets for the disabled often accommodate nappy-changing facilities. Furthermore, damage can be caused in any facility by those who want to.

To sum up, an increasing number of Hungary’s museums have encouraging initiatives. Investments and reconstructions serving the disabled are often made in line with the tactics of small steps. So it matters if a certain part of a public collection, perhaps a wing of the building, has already been made accessible.

Finally, let us note some really successful achievements in a random selection of museums.

The Skanzen (The Open-Air Museum of Ethnography) in Szentendre is in an advantageous position, due to its location, for receiving the disabled, and over the decades it has done its best for its visitors not to feel disadvantaged in any respect. Eleven marked parking places, whose width makes it convenient for the disabled to get out of their vehicles, are available in its parking lot. Those in need can access the reception building via an automatic door at the main entrance. The varied information system with regard to all disabilities, as well as the standard of the public conveniences, are worthy of the institution which in the past one and a half decades has become the citadel among Hungarian museums regarding developing the means for welcoming the disabled. Even the museum’s local railway is not left out – wheelchair users are helped by a lifting platform.

With respect to the accessibility of art museums, the Museum of Fine Arts has advanced furthest, surely not independently of a consistent concept developed by its management. In 2013 it opened its sixth temporary, free, accessible exhibition. It presented eight small-size paintings by Joan Miró loaned by the Miró Museum in Barcelona. Since last spring a smart phone app has been available in the museum, which makes the major part (150 paintings) of the permanent exhibition accessible in terms of information communication for people with impaired hearing. Art historical information is provided about the building, the collections and the exhibited works in sign language and with an interactive map. In addition, QR codes help people find their way. Copies of objects and statues could be touched at exhibitions such as The Splendour of the Medici, 1998; After the Pharaohs – Treasures of the Coptic Art from Egyptian Collections, 2005; Art and Culture in the Age of Sigismund of Luxemburg, 2006; And Then the Incas Arrived: Treasures from Peru before the Spanish Conquest, 2007; Renaissance in the Egypt of the Pharaohs, 2008. It seems that the museum’s experimenting mood is increasingly encompassing all branches of the arts.

The See by Touch project of the Hungarian National Museum has enabled a part of the permanent archaeological and medieval exhibitions to be tactile, audible and smelt, and there are also texts in Braille. The compilation reveals how well worked out it is: visitors with visual impairment can hold copies of objects fashioned from antlers, a pipe made of bone, a house reconstruction, a model of a coach, the ancient tools of food production, hunting and fishing, arms, jewellery, ancient Roman heating and road structures, spices, types of textiles, a hand mill and milling corn, runic script, a funeral crown, gold coins and stove tiles. The museum lends free MP3s which assist discovery of the museum in three ways with sound: independent movement and orientation in the exhibition rooms are assisted with the help of a voice map; a second voice provides general information about the exhibited items; a third talks about interesting points with regard to interactive demonstrations.

The Dr. László Batthyány-Strattmann Museum in Körmend staged a tactile exhibition in the framework of the Interreg project with Croatian, Slovenian and Hungarian cooperation in 2007. The museum is named after an ophthalmologist, so it can be perceived as a tribute to his spirit. The copies and reconstructions of objects connected with the Batthyány family such as a Baroque wig, the medal of the Order of the Golden Fleece and an ornamental mace, which can all be touched, have been exhibited in regularly set up installations that can be approached with the help of special guiding rods in a separate room. Visitors with visual impairment can listen to information about the objects with the help of wireless earphones and a movement detector above the installations.

With the help of the Social Renewal Operational Project (SROP), since May 2011 people with visual impairment visiting the Nyíregyháza-Sóstó Museum Village are presented with tactile objects of folk trades (blacksmith, wood, pottery, basket weaving) and can have hands-on experience with objects of agriculture and folk archi-tecture, as well as experiment with mangling and pounding processes.

The first temporary tactile exhibition with copies of art objects in Hajdú-Bihar County was also staged with the support of SROP. From October 2012 to January 2013 visitors to the Bihari Museum in Berettyóújfalu were presented with the tools of fishing in the Sárrét region, guided by people with visual impairment.

With respect to visitors with visual impairment, one of the information counters has a JAWS screen-reading programme, while in the exhibition room on archaeology a guiding system with sound features, as well as tactile objects, are also available.

Finally, mention must be made of the Aquincum Museum, which has been completely renewed. New elements include images with sound, a guide with Braille, ramps for the motor-disabled and a stair lift.

(http://www.magyarmuzeumok.hu/latogato/108_kezzel-foghato_mult ).

Let us not forget that individual discovery, visiting museums independently or mixing with the crowd during the Night of Museums each have their magic, which a disabled person may wish to experience. It is only practice that can show where the delicate border lies between intrusion, unnecessarily caring pampering and genuine assistance.