Evaluating Accessibility in Museums: A Practical Guide

Evaluating Accessibility in Museums bridges accessibility and evaluation through stories that highlight 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.

Laureen Trainer, principal of Trainer Evaluation, curated a blog series for the Committee on Audience Research and Evaluation, where she published nineteen blogs and worked with dozens of authors. She co-edited a volume of the Journal of Museum Education (JME), Empowering Museum Educators to Evaluate (Volume 40), and has been a JME peer reviewer for over a decade. Involved in the museum world since 1997, Trainer started as an educator and transitioned to the role of internal evaluator before ultimately becoming an independent, external evaluator. Trainer is passionate about evaluation as a tool for continual learning, adaptation, and engaging stakeholders and community members.