Co-creating Cultures of Inclusion: Redefining Access to Cultural Heritage is a response to an identified injustice as access to cultural heritage is still very limited for people with disability.

As a world-first study this project will create an innovative co-design model of practice, through an ecological framework and inclusive multi-sensorial explorations that can be translated and adopted by national, state, university, and regional museums and galleries across Australia and globally. This timely project will benefit all Australians by co-designing greater access to our cultural heritage for all.

This project will improve access to museums and galleries for people with disability. The research will build an evidence base through surveys, interviews, workshops and digital storytelling to better understand how people with differing abilities come to know and access cultural objects using various senses (e.g., haptics and touch). National access guidelines will be created with disability organisations, the cultural tourism sector, and more than 1,000 museums and galleries across Australia. A symposium and inclusive screening of the digital stories (with live audio description and interpretation) will involve people with disability and stakeholders from government, tourism and the cultural sector in discussion of policy, practice and advocacy. Benefits include more inclusive cultural tourism, higher visitor numbers, and a strengthening of Australian cultural and civic identity.

Funding

Chief Investigator

  • Associate Professor Janice Rieger

    Dr Janice Rieger is Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow in the School of Architecture and Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering at Queensland University of Technology. She is a  Program Leader in Ecologies of Justice with the Tier 1 Centre for Justice, and Chief Investigator with the Design Lab at QUT....

To find out more about Janice Rieger and her research visit her Researcher Showcase.