Galleries, Collections and Exhibits

When preparing to make your galleries and exhibitions more accessible to visitors, consider the following tips:

• Begin accessibility planning early in the design process to ensure that the physical space, exhibition design, and materials are accessible to a broad range of users. Establish systems for ongoing accessibility review at key transition points during development.
• Ensure compliance with relevant accessibility laws and standards, including the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design and the Smithsonian Guidelines for Accessible Exhibition Design (which can be found in the “Learn More” section below, along with other helpful resources).
• Seek feedback and conduct testing with user/experts, community members with disabilities, and accessibility consultants throughout the planning and design phases, and incorporate learnings into the process. Compensate them for their time and expertise.

Improving the accessibility, as well as the navigability, of physical spaces will help make them more welcoming. Best practices include:

• Consider clear pathways for navigation by ensuring ample space for safe movement, particularly for visitors using mobility devices such as wheelchairs, walkers, or scooters.
• Provide accessible doorways and entrances, ensuring they are wide enough for easy access.
• Ensure sufficient path width and turn radius to accommodate users of mobility devices.
• Offer comfortable, accessible seating with arms and backs throughout the exhibition or just outside of it. Provide space for wheelchair users on at least one side of seating in front of videos or interactive displays to allow side-by-side participation. Include portable seating options for flexibility to support varying needs.
• Place contextual resources and interactive materials on accessible tables with adequate space for users of mobility devices to engage comfortably.

Think about how you present the objects on display so that more different visitors can engage, including these tips:

• Display artwork at accessible heights, following guidelines for viewing ranges for both seated and standing viewers, while also considering the type of display and whether someone would be looking across or down.
• Ensure high visual contrast between objects, displays, and their backgrounds, including display cases, to maximize visibility.
• Limit object protrusion by ensuring that wall-mounted pieces do not protrude more than 4 inches from the wall between 27” and 80” from the floor without a cane-detectable element.
• Floor-mounted objects should have cane-detectable barriers or be on platforms for safety.
• Provide sufficient headroom for ceiling-mounted objects, ensuring at least 80 inches of clearance to avoid head injuries.
• Use consistent, adequate lighting that gradually transitions between areas to prevent discomfort from abrupt lighting changes, while maintaining object safety.
• Prioritize functional accessibility by considering how each element works in practice. For example, a label with appropriate color contrast but placed in a dark area is ineffective, and a platform that blends into the floor can become a tripping hazard. Test elements in real-world conditions to ensure safety and usability.

Your interpretive content and materials provide another opportunity to engage wider audiences. You can ensure that you’re making format and content more accessible through practices like these:

• Engage people with disabilities, such as user/experts and accessibility experts, in the development and testing of exhibit materials and interpretive content. Compensate them for their time.
• Use plain language to write all labels and texts that present an object’s context, history, and stories. Make sure content is clear, concise, and well-organized , and that any jargon or terminology is clearly defined to ensure understanding.
• Provide multiple formats for labels or other exhibit information, including large print, braille, audio tours, and digital resources (e.g., apps, website).
• Use appropriate text size, font, and contrast:
  • Sans serif fonts (e.g., Helvetica, Arial, Verdana) are preferred for all interpretive content (labels, exhibit guides, entry statements).
  • Ensure text is large enough for readability: 24 point font for labels viewed from 4-6 feet, 36 point for text viewed from further than 6 feet, and 40-60 point for contextual or entry statements.
  • Ensure high contrast between text and background for better visibility.
• Place labels at accessible locations and heights so that visitors can easily see and safely approach them. Avoid placing labels too close to the artwork or object to avoid it being bumped accidentally. Ensure that adequate lighting is available for readability, or that alternatives are available if low lighting is necessary. Avoid putting labels directly between a lighting source and a display, or the viewer will cast a shadow.
• Convey information in multiple ways, pairing color with text or symbols for clearer communication, and using symbols alongside text in instructional or warning labels for greater clarity (e.g., “don’t touch,” “please touch,” “no flash photography”).
• Provide audio description: Offer audio descriptions of objects within the exhibition via audio tour/guide, your website, apps, or other modalities. Provide audio descriptions in interpretive videos.
• Include tactile elements to enhance engagement and understanding (such as tactile maps, tactile reproductions of artwork, 3-D printed replicas, etc), accompanied by clear descriptions of what they are and their connection to the content in multiple formats.
• Ensure videos are accessible by providing captions, using digital resources (like apps or websites) or printed transcripts to provide content in additional languages (which could include American Sign Language via picture-in-picture), and indicating when videos have no sound so visitors who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing are not misled.

Finally, think about the sensory contents and social contexts of your exhibitions to make sure a range of visitors feel safe and comfortable. Tips include:

• Provide sensory warnings in advance to inform visitors of areas with sensory extremes (e.g., flashing or strobe lights, loud noises, strong scents), through signage, staffing, information on your website and/or pre-visit materials, etc.
• Communicate behavioral expectations by displaying guidelines for relevant expected behaviors (to encourage or avoid) clearly at exhibition entrances or on digital resources. These may include guidelines around artwork safety (e.g., don’t touch), visitor safety (e.g., no running), permission to actively engage with displays, or expectations of remaining quiet while viewing a video or installation.
• Control sound by directing audio to specific areas of the exhibition to prevent sound bleed (using sound cones, headphones, etc.), ensuring a more focused experience for visitors.