BLOG: Equal Access to museums for vision impaired people

The 'In Touch with Art - International Conference on equal access to museums
for vision impaired people' will take place at the Victoria and Albert Museum on 13-14 October. It is organised by St Dunstan´s in association with the European Blind Union.

It provides a rare opportunity for sharing new thinking and new best practice and much room for engaging in discussion. The conference is fully booked, with over 150 people attending from across the world.

The organizers are delighted to be able to give this unfolding discussion a public dimension and offer everyone interested the opportunity to contribute to the In Touch with Art Conference blog. This has been made possible thanks to Disability Arts Online in the UK, who are kindly hosting the blog.

Look up and contribute to the ITWA blog.

There are already several features and comments on the theme of blind and
partially sighted people and museums. One is by Will Phillips; vision impaired Collections Manager for Hampshire County Museums Service, who reflects on "the extent of barriers" "to equal access to museums for vision impaired people". Marcus Weisen's (Content Director for St Dunstan´s, In Touch with Art) response provides the international policy context which establishes the cultural rights of disabled people and suggests that "no government worldwide is doing enough yet to provide equality of access to museums".

The organizers welcome contributions and the suggested themes are:

• What are the pressing issues for you?
• What do you see as the main challenges and what ways forward might you be thinking of?

More information about the In Touch with Art.