Making a small museum ASD-friendly

I think that the advice there is generally good, and most of it would apply equally to autistic adults. I won't be too critical of the exclusion of autistic adults, as the leaflet is part of a "Kids in Museums" project; but the misconception that autism is primarily a childhood condition is very common, so it's worth emphasising that adults can have just the same difficulties when you're training staff etc.

Just found this link which looks really helpful -any comments gratefully received.

https://www.keepandshare.com/doc/8203454/kim-autism-a4-wales-pdf-326k?da=y

Another good idea.  We never seem to  get a lot of people in at one time - except, of course, when we get a foundation phase class in from the local primary!

Something that I believe has been tried in some supermarkets is having a specific time slot solely for people with sensory issues. I know if there was a particular hour of the day I could visit and know I wouldn't be plagued by children and the noise they inevitably create I would be glad to visit then. During the holidays you get families, during term time school trips so you can never guarantee to be safe.

That's good to hear - we'll do our best.

Will try and take Here4achat and your comments about noise on board.  Suspect it will be costly so may do without until we can get some funding.  Thank you.

I personally have found most small local museums to be already ASD friendly. And I consider them to be places of refuge from the outside world.

I've been to multiple museums in many countries this year, and some things that make a big difference to me:

- single clear route through that lets me see all of the exhibits. That doesn't mean it can't loop back on itself or offer multiple entry/exit points, just make it easy to be sure you've seen everything. My favourite museums have had a clear simple path to follow

- no unexpected stimuli. For me that's noise, but generally avoid surprising people with lights, sound or movement. One museum had a whole linear section in which each exhibit loudly played audio of people reading diary excerpts, poetry and other writing relating to the exhibit. I got a third of the way through and the constant barrage of unexpected loud noise forced me to stop and leave

- if you have a tannoy, make sure it doesn't echo. I had a horrific experience in a large hangar style museum where their "Our next event starts in ten minutes" announcements caused great distress because they were too loud, exacerbated by an echo

- provide a means to identify exhibits in detail. I will gloss over and ignore 90% of your museum but take an entirely unreasonable level of interest in half of the rest. I don't need the museum to provide all of the detail but give me enough information to undertake further research with a level of accuracy - e,g, "Engine by Fred" doesn't help me later when I find out that Fred built multple models, and am trying to understand the features of the one I saw without knowing which one it was

I think most of the rest comes under 'how to make museums interesting and engaging' so I wont insult you by adding more.

That's a really nicely presented website, it was nice to find some general history of the area, and to see so many different activities going on. It's fantastic that you've had so much community support. I'll have to pop in if I'm in that neck of the woods.

Loved the Offa puns, by the way!

I see what you mean, but I meant 'child-friendly' in the sense that children are allowed to touch and/or play with the artefacts as not everything is behind glass.  We are only a tiny museum and it is very rare to have several people in at one time so I would like to think you would find us suitable for your family.

MuseumCurator said:

We try to be child-friendly so I think that makes us pretty adult-friendly too.

I believe that to be an erroneous assumption.

In my experience, children are very noisy and I have found it impossible to find a quiet place where children are allowed. Noise is probably the major reason why I avoid so many places.

Thank you!!

We try to be child-friendly so I think that makes us pretty adult-friendly too.  Many of the artefacts are displayed to be picked-up, sniffed, cuddled, played etc. etc.  Obviously, we say no to some of the farm implements but you can still get up-close and personal with them.  And i've taken the needles out of the sewing machines!!

Our more precious or valuable objects are behind glass but we will usually be able to get them out for closer inspection.

We've got a case of 'mystery' items. We don;t know what some of them are.

Didn't realise you were in Wales have liked you on fb :) xx

I've registered my business which is next door to the museum for Autism Hour this year so I should be learning more from  the National Autistic Society that we can pass on to the museum.  Thank you for that.

Thank you so much for this,  Here is the link to our museum page on the local tourism website.  There are links to Twitter and Facebook which I try to keep up to date as much as possible.We only got started last August and have been rather overwhelmed with donations and loans from the local community.  We are also constrained by the premises which gives us just one big room that we are not allowed to mess with.  Where possible, you'll find links to local history via the folk we are following on Twitter.  

We have also been advised by a visitor with dyspraxia to put more signage to stop confusion so we are experimenting with stick on foot prints, etc.

If everyone is happy, I'd like to keep in touch via this forum with updates.

visitknighton.co.uk/.../

I wonder if it's worth contacting the National Autistic Society direct for advice on this?  I would imagine they have guidelines for things like their "autism hour" initiative which might be helpful as a starting point at least?

Welcome from a local-museum-o-phile (is there a word for that?!)

Firstly, it's great to see you here looking for some advice "from the horse's mouth". I actually think that there's quite an overlap with dementia-friendliness here; changes made to our local supermarket for their dementia-friendly campaign certainly made it more comfortable for me to visit. The cognitive effects on memory, language, spacial awareness, and attention are not dissimilar; so you're probably doing quite a lot right already. You may just need to point out to staff that those adaptions are not exclusively useful to elderly people.

For your guide and signage, I suggest using images where you can instead of, or in addition to, text. Many autistic people process thoughts internally using mental images rather than thinking in words, so will find information presented that way much easier to comprehend (dyslexia is also relatively common for autistic people; so again, you're on the right track already!) Due to sensory sensitivities, many of us have a rather extreme startle reflex too, so it would be worth marking on a floor-plan etc. where there might be, for example, noisy or moving interactive exhibits which other visitors might trigger without warning. It's almost impossible to think of every sensitivity, though; for example, people with misophonia can have trouble with incredibly specific sounds, even if they're not very loud. So what you may be best doing is to point out any obvious general issues (e.g. fluorescents, noisy machinery) and that you are disability-aware, and then give some contact details for visitors or carers to contact you if they have any specific concerns.

And finally, where you can, do let us know where we can get further information about your exhibits. When local history is one of your autistic "special interests", there's nothing more frustrating than having your interest piqued and then struggling to satiate the desire to know more! Details of local history groups, source books, archaeology archives, etc. in a guide (or website, if you have one) are something I always appreciate!

I don't know what exhibits you will have, but I like to touch things (especially if it says 'do not touch'!).

So if possible some exhibits that can be touched without damaging them.  And some things that make one wonder and think what they are used for ... with the purpose hidden (lift up flap, etc).

please keep us updated sounds like a brilliant venture well done ! :)