Our Journey so Far

Getting started

For many years the Hunt Museum has actively engaged economically and socially marginalised communities to increase access to and ownership of the Museum. That said, we recognised that we needed to do more to meet the needs and interests of disabled communities. As a small museum with limited resources, we created a phased plan on how we would gradually achieve this.

From the start we recognised that persons with disability are experts in their own needs, so it was critical that we collaborated with them to understand the barriers to access and inclusion that they experience but also to collaborate with them to put solutions/accommodations in place.

Our Plan

Phase 1

It began in Summer 2022 and aimed to work with persons who are blind/visually impaired to develop resources which would increase access to and participation in the museum’s Permanent Collection.

  • Six staff and volunteers completed audio description training with Vocal Eyes
  • Four persons with visual impairment/blindness were located through Vision Ireland.
  • They participated in bi-monthly workshops in the Museum during which they used touch interpretation to explore 35 objects. They then worked closely with staff and volunteers to co-create an audio description for each one.

Heritage Council ‘Community Grant’ funding was then secured to deliver the Seeing Without Sight multisensory exhibition. The audio descriptions produced by our co-creators formed one of the main components of this exhibition. Other components included 3D printed tactile object replicas, large format and braille object labels and screen reader accessible signage. Two phases of this exhibition were delivered. The second phase concluded in February 2024.

four people are sitting at a table. Two of them are visually Impaired co-creators and they are working with two project volunteers to develop audio description text for a gold coloured metal objects. One of the co-creators is using a tablet to magnify an image of the object to examine its detail.
Two co-creators work with two volunteers on an audio description

Phase II

It began in August 2023 and focused on securing Autism Friendly Accreditation for the museum from AsIAm, Ireland’s Autism Charity. With financial support for the Heritage Council, this objective was achieved in late October 2023.

Phase III

Progress achieved under Phase I and II enabled the museum to secure funding for Phase III which was delivered under the Inclusive Museum project. It commenced in late November 2023 and ran until late October 2024.

Inclusive Museum was financially supported by Rethink Ireland’s ‘Disability Awareness and Participation Fund’. Central to the success of this project was the establishment of two working groups, An Autism Working Group and a Visually Impaired Working Group, whose collaborative work with staff and volunteers brought many benefits:

  • Increased knowledge and understanding of the needs of autistic persons and people with visual impairment has made the museum a more inclusive place to visit, work in and volunteer
  • Physical changes to the building have made it more comfortable and welcoming for everyone, but especially for people who are autistic or visually impaired
  • Detailed pre-visit information is now available on our website helping persons with mobility and sensory challenges to prepare for their visit
  • Staff now have a deep understand of the remaining sensory and cognitive barriers in the Museum and regarding our website, that still need to be addressed.
External view of the museum's Sensory Room which is a bright yellow in colour and located under a stairs. It has a low door above which there is a sign with the words "Sensory Room". Inside the door is a bench which is blue and yellow.
External view of the museum’s sensory ROom

Phase IV ( November 2024 to 2025)

Our priorities for Phase IV include:

  • Growing the inclusive museum movement in Ireland by establishing a community of practice for museum and cultural heritage workers, many of whom have already approached us for guidance and support
  • Expanding the membership of the Autistic Persons Working Group so that it represents the needs and perspectives of neurodivergent people
  • Planning and delivering regular inclusive events in collaboration with our working groups
  • Securing further funding, enabling us to tackle some of the remaining sensory and cognitive barriers in the Museum while also providing the community of practice with learning-rich case studies, which will be shared through this website. These projects will be co-created and delivered with members from both working group and will include:
    • a multisensory trail to aid wayfinding in our open plan Permanent Collection galleries
    • new dyslexia friendly collections based interpretation panels which will be developed using universal design principles

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