Checklist: Outlining Program Possibilities
Type of Collection and Exhibitions
- Define the character of your collection.
- Decide whether you will limit activities and educational materials to your permanent collection or special exhibitions.
Audience Age, Educational, and Cultural Background
- Characterize audience: age, educational and cultural background, and degree of vision impairment.
Audience Interest or Goals of the Program
- Does your audience need an introductory tour, more advanced art history, art appreciation, or art-making activities, for instance?
- Is the goal of your program to encourage individual interpretation or response, or to communicate specific data/information about the art, or both?
Length of Program
- What is your time commitment?
- Do you want to provide gallery access for the single-session visitor, either in a structured program or as a self-guided visit?
- Will this gallery access only be for the permanent collection? Visiting exhibitions? How often will you change the materials? Do you seek the repeat visitor (for example, three times a year, or with rotating exhibition schedules)?
- Do you want to provide a series of weekly or monthly programs, which build upon each other to develop skills and knowledge?
- Do you want to provide school-year curriculum integration programs?
Educational Resources and Tools
- Are there objects in your collection that are safe to touch?
- Does your museum shop have replicas of works from your collection, or comparable objects?
- Can you create models or other tactile experiences?
- Do you have an art-making facility, or space in the galleries for small art-making sessions, with object-safe materials such as pencil and boards? Can you arrange with security, curators and conservation for that space to be used?
- Do you have a school-based program?
- If your institution already has a strong partnership with the local school(s), you may be able to extend your program to the students with disabilities in these schools, as well as to residential schools for students with disabilities in your community.
Museum Size and Educational Facilities
- Does your museum have large or small galleries, general-purpose rooms, art-making studios, or a sculpture garden?
- Also consider whether your floor plan is relatively straightforward or whether it requires a specialized (tactile) map and/or audio guide to navigate the space.
Staffing
- How many staff members are interested and can be committed to this program?
- How many volunteers or docents are available?
- Is there a local college or university from which to draw interns? Can you become affiliated with a work-study program to attract more students?
- Are there local community organizations that would share staff expertise and time?
Community Involvement and Resources
- Contact local artists for lectures or studio-based programs.
- Are there other arts organizations reaching out to the blind and visually impaired community?
- Contact local schools and universities for lecturers.
- Contact local service agencies for materials and expertise.
Budgets and Funding
- Are there grants available specifically for accessibility programs?
- Can your accessibility program be included in general outreach or special exhibition budgets?
- Check with advisory board members. Can you create a joint program with other organizations?
