The denver art museum will create a welcoming environment for people of diverse backgrounds, abilities, and perspectives and enable museum visitors with disabilities to access the museum on their…

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) was awarded a $543,537 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Museums for America (CFDA 45.301) program to create a more welcoming and accessible environment for visitors with disabilities. The project, which runs from September 2024 to August 2027, will involve increasing staff understanding of accessibility, actively engaging with individuals with disabilities to learn from their experiences, convening a working group to generate accessibility prototypes, fabricating and testing the prototypes, and hosting a community-curated showcase. The goal is to provide a platform for individuals with disabilities to share their expertise and input on design solutions that serve disability communities and the broader museum field.

The denver art museum will create a welcoming environment for people of diverse backgrounds, abilities, and perspectives and enable museum visitors with disabilities to access the museum on their own terms. Project activities will include increasing staff's understanding of disabilities to mitigate accessibility barriers at the museum; actively engaging individuals with disabilities to learn from their experiences visiting the museum; convening a working group to generate ideas for accessibility prototypes; fabricating and testing the prototypes; and hosting a community curated showcase. Progress will be adjusted based on findings from a process evaluation, which will help the museum field and visitors get a behind the scenes look at community driven design solutions. As a result, the museum will provide a platform for individuals with disabilities to share their stores and expertise in the development of designs that serve disability communities and the museum field.