Evaluating Accessibility in Museums: A Practical Guide

This book bridges accessibility and evaluation through case studies of museums that highlight the role of evaluation in accessibility work. Stories from institutions of various sizes, types, and geographical locations highlight how diverse organizations have developed and grown accessibility initiatives and the vital role that evaluation has played in their evolution. Read about different types of accessibility initiatives and how they were evaluated, the impact of these programs on disabled (and at times non-disabled) visitors, what staff and community members learned, and their conversations about iterating and moving forward. In each case, evaluating accessibility work created better more responsive institutions who value, and are in conversation, with their various communities, while demonstrating the importance of always talking, always asking, always adapting, and always using evaluation to help guide you forward.

Laureen Trainer is Principal of Trainer Evaluation in Denver, CO. She is editor of the blog for the Committee an Audience Research and Evaluation, a Professional Network of the American Alliance of Museums. She has published 19 blogs to date, starting in 2020, and has worked with over a dozen authors. She co-edited a volume of the Journal of Museum Education, Empowering Museum Educators to Evaluate (Volume 40). She has also been a JME peer reviewer for over a decade. She has been involved in the museum world since 1997, first as a museum educator, and starting in 2010, as a museum evaluator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. In 2013, seeing the need for evaluation in small to mid-size cultural institutions, she became an independent, external evaluator.