Improving Arts Accessibility

Project: The Accessibility Toolkit
Partner: Tangled Art + Disability
Principal Investigator: Anne Zbitnew
Co-investigator: Jennie Grimard
Funder: Cultivate Fund
Students: Arts Administration & Cultural Management program

Partnering with Tangled Art + Disability, Humber faculty and students developed the Accessibility Toolkit: A Guide to Making Art Spaces Accessible, a resource to inform and educate students, artists, arts organizations, curators, program directors, volunteers and gallery staff on how to develop and implement inclusive programming and incorporate accessibility features into aspects of exhibition design.

The toolkit features recommendations such as artwork height and exhibition labelling.Humber students gained teamwork skills and engaged in positive debates as they strived to agree on the most inclusive gallery design recommendations for the toolkit.

Depictions of Inclusivity Tools by Jennie Grimard, Project Co-investigator
Depictions of Inclusivity Tools by Jennie Grimard, Project Co-investigator

The final product is fluid in structure. As technology develops and societal views change, the toolkit will adjust to combat potential new physical, societal and, cultural barriers to inclusivity. The toolkit is available for download via the Humber College Applied Research & Innovation and Tangled Art + Disability websites.

“Accessibility is a vital component of media, and our students will have the opportunity to both solve existing inclusivity problems and to include accessibility features from the first moment of creation.”

    — Guillermo Acosta, Dean, School of Media Studies & Information Technology1

Key benefits of this project:

  • Increased awareness around barriers to accessibility and different accesibility needs.
  • A final toolkit that can be added to students’ resumes and portfolios.
  • A starting place for arts organizations to learn about accessibility..

1 About the Course. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://humber.ca/makingaccessiblemedia/