How do you make sure that visitors with disabilities can prepare themselves online?
For many people with a disability, proper preparation for their scheduled museum visit is half the battle. The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam website provides comprehensive information about the museum’s accessibility.
Visitors to the Rijksmuseum website will find:
- A short film about how to visit the museum in a wheelchair, mobility scooter, rollator or child’s buggy
- The floor plan which uses orange arrows to indicate how to get to the museum galleries with a wheelchair, and where the lifts and accessible toilets are located. You will also find the quiet spaces in the Rijksmuseum marked in green, and each bench is indicated.
- A preparatory document: some visitors may need careful preparation before visiting the museum; for example, children with autism spectrum disorder.
- Tips for a quieter museum visit, because although the museum can get very busy, there are quieter times and areas. We think it’s important that people know this.
- Information about activities for people with sensory disabilities.
When it comes to hospitality, going the extra mile for people with disabilities is not a luxury, but an absolute necessity. It’s a pity to use up your energy waiting in the queue, finding your way around and figuring out what there is to do in the museum.
Hospitable staff
A large part of how visits are experienced depends upon the hospitality of the staff. That is why accessibility forms part of the hospitality training the front office and security staff undergo. Every month, the Rijksmuseum’s accessibility/Inclusion Manager, Cathelijne, visits the museum to talk to a hands-on expert with a disability about their experiences in the museum, and gives the staff tips on hospitality.
In addition, new employees put on a disability simulation suit and make their way through the museum, so that they can find out for themselves how it feels, for example, to have difficulty walking. This puts them in an even better position to help visitors.
To find out more, contact the Accessibility/Inclusion Manager: Cathelijne Denekamp-van den Berg at c.vanden.berg@rijksmuseum.nl
