Accessibility for BAM!
Participation, listening, shared skills: accessibility is a journey to be travelled together
Cultural participation is a fundamental right recognised by the UN, guaranteed to all individuals regardless of their permanent or temporary physical conditions, age, gender, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Being open and accessible is a duty of every cultural institution and organisation. While accessibility is now part of the everyday vocabulary in cultural planning, the challenges of creating a more inclusive and expansive cultural offering that leaves no one behind are far from simple.
To design effective solutions, we begin by listening to the target groups, facilitating the self-representation of the communities involved, defining a shared vocabulary, and identifying the barriers to overcome. We apply established skills, tools, and methods in line with the Design for All approach. When existing paths are unknown or undefined, we create and experiment with new solutions based on co-design and participation.
In this context, analysis and monitoring, communication, the development of participatory processes, exchange and continuous training all play a crucial role.
How can you improve your organisation’s accessibility?
By measuring what you already do, to understand how to do it better
To improve, the first step is to measure, evaluate, and assess what is already being done. Questionnaires, data analysis, and result evaluation are essential steps in initiating targeted and strategic actions to enhance the accessibility of services and spaces.
Co-designing accessible solutions in a participatory way
Actively involving your target communities in the process of improving accessibility, taking care to gather points of view that represent different groups and specific needs, is essential to ensure that you adopt solutions and approaches that are truly accessible and effective.
Communicating in an accessible way
From physical to digital spaces, it is crucial that language and communication media – such as signage, online platforms, and offline channels – are tailored to meet the diverse needs of all audiences. When content is developed without considering the accessibility of the recipients, or when messages are shared through channels that are difficult to access, the effectiveness of our activities and initiatives is significantly compromised.
Getting involved in continuous training programmes
Solutions to improve accessibility are constantly evolving and affect all areas of an organisation’s work.
Working together with industry partners with years of experience, training and constantly exchanging ideas can make all the difference: we do this with Associazione Fedora, KeepOn LIVE and ICOM Italia.
The text on this page has a Gulpease index of 42.9, meaning that it has an average-to-high level of reading difficulty and comprehension, consistent with the type of audience for which it was written (professionals in the cultural heritage sector).
The Gulpease index is a very useful tool for evaluating the readability of a text in Italian. It is based on a mathematical formula that considers two linguistic variables: word length and sentence length in relation to the number of letters.
How did you find this page? If it felt difficult to read or if you encountered any issues, please let us know by emailing us at social@bamstrategieculturali.com. Thank you!
Discover our accessibility projects:
Resources
Did you know that you can make your project more accessible by involving your target audience at every stage of the process?
Write to us!
BAM! can help you do this. Contact us if you’d like to find out more.