Co-Constructing Universal Design in Citizen Science Workshops.

Abstract

This paper reports on a series of workshops that took place at two Swedish museums during 2017. The workshops were inspired by a citizen science approach, where the participants were not only on the receiving end but also active in producing new knowledge. The importance of turning to peoples' lived perspectives are often brought forward as crucial to understanding how inclusion and exclusion are played out in real life. The study aimed to introduce and discuss Universal Design (UD) of museum exhibitions, by engaging visitors and staff in bringing forward content for joint discussions. As there is an ongoing shift from traditional work on accessibility towards UD taking place in Sweden right now, the study was also part of raising the awareness of UD within the disability movement and at the museums. Museum visitors representing different disability organizations worked together with museum staff in photo exercises, supervised by two researchers. In total, 31 participants took part in six three-hour workshops. The workshop format encompassed three steps. First, one of the researchers introduced UD, after which the participants were divided into mixed groups with both visitors and staff. Their task was to take photos of museum features that were in line with, or in conflict with, UD. At the end of the workshop, all groups gathered to discuss what they had found. In this paper, we tell about the examples the participants brought forward and the ensuing joint discussions, and discuss the further implications for UD.