Creating Visitor-Centered Museum Experiences for Adults with Developmental Disabilities

Many museums have been critically characterized as elitist institutions that offer few inclusive services to meet the needs and interests of marginalized populations and communities (Hill, 2016; Sandell & Nightingale, 2013). Some museums, however, are turning to visitor-centered approaches that refocus their efforts to concentrate on the needs and interests of visitors instead of the objects on display (Love & Boda, 2017; Weil, 1999). One population often overlooked by museums—adult visitors with developmental disabilities—served as the primary participant group for this qualitative bricolage case study along with their parents or caregivers and museum staff members. Using disability studies as a guiding framework, participants collaborated with the researcher and museum staff members to document their museum experiences through inclusive art-making, interviews, discussions, and observations. The purpose of this research was to explore how such collaborations might create more inclusive and visitor-centered museum experiences for these visitors. Findings were used to make recommendations for future programing and consisted of several themes developed during the coding process. The themes included understanding, accessibility, interactive, collaboration, communication, and evaluation.