Smithsonian Institution Morning at the Museum: Programming for families of children with cognitive disabilities
Despite significant progress since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, programmatic immersion and community inclusion remain elusive for many individuals with disabilities. As historical sites and cultural organizations ponder how to diversify their programs to include individuals with disabilities and make their facilities accessible, are they prepared to include individuals with cognitive and developmental disabilities? The small number and inconsistent quality of programs for individuals with cognitive and developmental disabilities is minimal, at best. I find myself asking: Why is this population overlooked? How can we create “safe” and welcoming environments for visitors with cognitive disabilities? What are the most effective promotional tools (e.g., flyers, email distribution, etc.)? How can we increase the likelihood that they will come back after one visit?
Established in 1991, the mission of the Smithsonian Institution’s Accessibility Program is to ensure that staff, volunteers, interns, fellows, and visitors feel welcome in the museum environment by providing them consistent and effortless access to the Smithsonian’s programs, collections, and facilities. The Accessibility Program is committed to the belief that access should be universal, integrated, independent, and dignified. Our goal is to create an inclusive environment where all people may experience programs, exhibitions, events, and work environments, which leads to the diversifying the Institution’s reach and impact.
In 2010, the Smithsonian Institution Accessibility Program formed a Community Advisory Committee (CAC) to develop programming for families of children with cognitive disabilities and encourage them to be active participants in museums. The CAC is comprised of museum educators, special education teachers, parents of children with cognitive disabilities, and advocates. In accordance with the Smithsonian Institution’s mission – the increase and diffusion of knowledge – the committee set out to create an initiative in which families would: have a positive experience in a museum, have access to pre-visit materials to prepare their children for a visit, and be encouraged to return in the future. After conducting research, developing pre-visit materials, and recruiting local families, the CAC offered its first Morning at the Museum (MATM) event at the National Museum of American History in April 2011.
Morning at the Museum is a pan-Institutional project designed to better serve families that include children with cognitive disabilities who wish to visit the Smithsonian museums. This project seeks to prepare children with neurodiversity for the museum experience and diminish potential stress and worry for their parents. Every other month, a particular museum opens one hour earlier on a Saturday morning for registered families so that they may experience the exhibits and participate in specific activities without large crowds. This program has been successful in creating inclusion of the broader disability community into the Smithsonian museums and zoo visitor population.
When the CAC began developing MATM, two of the most important factors were creating pre-visit materials and a take a break space for families that would be attending the event. Research has shown that individuals with cognitive disabilities, autism, and sensory processing disabilities may have a difficult time anticipating expectations, transitioning from one activity to the next, and adapting to new environments. As such, the CAC felt it necessary to provide families with as much information possible before they arrived at the event. The pre-visit materials included: social stories about the museum and specific exhibits, sensory tips, a visual schedule, and a sensory map of the environment. Pre-visit materials are posted on the Accessibility Program’s website and distributed to the families via email prior to the event.
In addition to pre-visit materials, the CAC believed that offering families a “take a break space” could help alleviate anxiety for individuals with varying sensory needs. Most importantly, the take a break space needs to be in close proximity to the designated areas where activates are taking place. The take a break space is generally an open and quiet area inside a nearby exhibit or meeting room. Various sensory materials (e.g., fidget toys, stress balls, body sox, tactile toys, sensory pillows, crash pads, etc.) are placed in the take a break space and are readily available throughout the event.
MATM has experienced overwhelming success since its inception in 2011. To date, MATM events have taken place at the National Museum of American History, the National Postal Museum, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Zoological Park, and the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. Attendance for each event ranges from 20-40 families per event, and feedback from the families has been very positive.
As with any successful program, ours has faced its share of challenges. In particular,
- We struggle to recruit new families, especially those that have experienced negativity and judgment in previous museum visits, and to encourage them to return to the museum during public hours. Our comprehensive contact list contains over 300 families, and we encourage participants to share information to their various networks. However, this is not enough. In order to ensure the sustainability of the program, we must increase our efforts to reach more local families. Most importantly, we must continue to address the first question posed earlier – why is this population overlooked?
- Also, we face challenges within the Smithsonian Institution (e.g., lack of interest by some museums, staffing changes, etc.). We continue to offer trainings to staff, volunteers, and interns about serving ALL visitors, including those with disabilities. Outreach efforts are usually met with optimism. Yet, we continue to hear the same doubts: this is too hard; it will cost too much; our staff members don’t have the time to undergo training; we’re afraid of making mistakes and offending people with disabilities.
In order to overcome these challenges, it is important to reinforce our organization’s mission to the staff, volunteers, and general public. All visitors, including those with cognitive disabilities, must be able to experience the content of our museums in a meaningful way. MATM is one way to provide families of children with cognitive disabilities such an experience. However, we need to encourage our colleagues to generalize the best practices, materials, and strategies throughout the Smithsonian Institution. As a historical organization, we must ensure that visitors with disabilities are meaningfully included in the future history that is constantly being rewritten.
~ Ashley Terrell-Rea, Smithsonian Institution
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It seems like one of the key challenges that Ashley and other working group participants face is getting buy-in from staff and administration. I’m sure this is particularly challenging in a large organization like SI. One thing I wondered is whether staff has had the opportunity to see the program in action. It would be interesting to know what someone who was previously a “doubter” thought after seeing and experiencing the program in person.
Has anyone else struggled with this? How did you work to address a lack of buy-in with your staff, volunteers, and administration?
Reading this case statement I also wondered what kind of marketing of the MATM program SI has done. I could see this kind of program being featured in travel magazines and blogs, in the travel sections of large newspapers, etc. Does SI have plans for promoting this program to a more national (or international) audience?
Ashley- Do you know of other museums or sites that provide similar programs? Are there specific lessons or best practices the CAC team learned in developing and carrying out the MATM program that could be useful for other museums and historic sites?
I agree that staff buy-in is always a challenge and an issue. I was also struck by the challenge of getting more members of the local community to participate in the program to ensure its continued success. I often sense some frustration that we create opportunities, such as producing pre-recorded audio description, that require many resources, including time and money. Yet these opportunities are often not requested or used. I try to encourage people by noting that if persons who are blind and their families and friends have had negative experiences at other parks or similar institutions, they will stop trying to participate. I do think it also speaks to the issue of public outreach, marketing and PR. Reaching out on a regular basis to the disabilities community is something that I find often drops off if it is done at all. I think there is a certain expectation that “if we build it, they will come.” While this may be true when the net is cast broadly, I think constant outreach is necessary when new (and even not so new) programs for targeted audiences are developed. I think the effort required for public outreach is far underestimated and under resourced.
Ashley,
For the buy in by admin, have you quoted figures on diagnosis rates some of these intellectual disorders? Autism Spectrum Disorder is 1 in 88 for example. Projecting that out we are going to have a double digit percentage of our audience with a disorder. We can not ignore that subset of our community while continuing to meet our institutional goals. Having those hard data numbers could help to open the eyes of management/staff.
Marketing is something we struggle with as well. Being a museum under construction, in rural area that is economically depressed we are constantly struggling to get an audience let alone serve those with intellectual or cognitive disorders. I had to travel to a couple of institutions, set up meetings in order to open a dialog and get my programs in the door.
Some ideas to discuss about getting your programs/resources out there: 1.) All schools have to provide services for students with IDs or CDs. Hosting a teacher workshop for special education teachers can provide an advocate for you inside the schools to bring those classes along on school field trips where your program can shine next to your other school programs. 2.) State and Local Conference presentations. Every year in Tuscaloosa a conference of professionals who deal with individuals who have IDs (specifically Autism) takes place. I am currently trying to find a way to have a forum, session or just a table set up to discuss the programs we currently do to help put the word out. Possibly consider something similar?
I think the challenge is with so much going on, why do so much work for a small segment of the audience that may or may not appreciate it as evidenced by the lack of support from the families? I should also defend the families who don’t “support” the program by saying that it might not be the case that they don’t support the program, but rather the times don’t work for them or perhaps their needs have outgrown the museum. I say this as someone with a disability in which separate programs are offered for us that I don’t always attend myself. I’m also not saying I agree with the above question as well, but I know it is asked.
What would our answer be to an administrator who asks instead of creating “one-offs”, how can we integrate these activities into the normal museum function of exhibition development and regular visitor hours similar to Brian’s program? How do we answer?
I wonder if families on the MATM contact lists would be willing to introduce you to the people who run their various networks. Perhaps it would be possible to send materials to their distribution lists and recruit more families that way. Based on your case study, your materials are ready to go, they just need an address. This might work well with Brian’s suggestions to contact teachers and organizations about the program.
One question I would raise relates to the Smithsonian website: how easy is it to navigate to the MATM program, or even to the accessibility pages? And how far in advance are programs scheduled? It may be a question of both outreach and ease-of-use.
I am particularly interested in Heather’s question about SI’s plans for promoting this nationally or internationally. It strikes me that many museums around the country (and globe) struggle with the same training issues.