Evaluating Accessibility in Museums bridges accessibility and evaluation through stories highlighting how diverse organizations have developed and grown accessibility initiatives and the vital role that evaluation played in their evolution. 

Authors share how they worked from a variety of institutional starting points to design programs, exhibitions, and accommodations for visitors with disabilities and how these initiatives were evaluated both during and after implementation. Read about the impact of this work on disabled (and non-disabled) audiences, what staff learned, and conversations about iterating and moving forward.

Each story demonstrates how evaluation created more responsive institutions that value diverse communities, invite communication and collaboration, and more meaningfully impact visitors. There are some great evaluation resources out there to help you get started. 

Essential Evaluators: Seeks to gather evaluators in a common space to dialogue, reflect, and support each other in a world upended by COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protest movement. This is a time of uncertain and unknown expectations in our professions, in our institutions, and in our communities. We invite you to join us as we rethink, revision, and ultimately redefine our roles as evaluators and our place in museums.

 Three professionals were asked to provide some thoughts on museum visitors for the digital magazine Plinth Forum (dedicated to promoting and highlighting innovative and educational programming within museums and cultural institutions). I contributed a short piece titled: What's in a Name? What does it Really Mean to Call Someone a Visitor?

What do jelly beans, Matchbox cars and wordles have to do with evaluation? Find out in these three video reports.