The first international meeting of the partners of the project ‘REACT – Ressources for European Accessible Cultural Tours’ took place in Paris on 27-28 March 2024 and was attended by Anna Ochmann, President of the ARTeria Foundation.
On the first day, the partners, in discussions moderated by the ALTO project coordinator, focused on the main substantive activities envisaged by the project. ‘WP2 Pedagogical tools and frameworks’ was presented by the action leader Les Apprimeurs, and “WP3 E-learning modules” by – Logopsycom. Day two, on the other hand, was devoted to activities related to communication, dissemination and further exploitation of the results – coordinated by IASI – as well as issues related to project management, including quality and financial management.
The most important part of the meeting, however, was the discussion about the accessibility of cultural facilities and inclusion, which means respecting everyone as they are and guaranteeing the possibility for everyone to participate fully in society. Participants discussed the fact that museums, galleries and other cultural venues should enter into a dialogue with people with disabilities in order to learn about their needs and desires, as well as ways to meet them. An important contribution to the discussion was to point out that it is important for the project to adopt and apply a social model of disability, i.e. one that recognises disability as the result of barriers created by society. It is therefore important that universal design principles form the basis of inclusive practices in museums and galleries – the adoption and implementation of inclusive-oriented good practices, including those collected as part of the REACT project or as a result of the project, will ensure that disability is integrated into all areas of museum and gallery activities. In the view of the meeting participants, it is of utmost importance that this process is continuous, long-term, achievable and sustainable. It must be reflected in the policy and strategic planning of the museum, gallery or other cultural institution, and its implementation should be reinforced by training tools such as those provided by the REACT project, among others.
The meeting participants also agreed that at least four important types of accessibility should be considered in relation to museums and cultural institutions: physical accessibility, information and communication accessibility, social accessibility and economic accessibility, of which only the last one is – for obvious reasons – not the focus of the project.
