Based on interviews with UK museum staff and first-hand participation in their access programmes, the project identified three types of access that matter to blind and partially sighted people: autonomous access, which enables independent participation; embodied access, which allows for multi-sensory engagement; and social access, which supports belonging and relationship-building.

The team also uncovered challenges, from resource constraints to tensions between safety and inclusion, and outlined strategies to navigate them, including informing, extending and sensitising.

To bring these insights to wider audiences, the team curated Layers of Vision, an exhibition of ten multi-sensory artworks by blind and partially sighted artists. Each piece explored accessibility in a different way, integrating the project’s threefold access model from the outset, not as an add-on. The exhibition ran at Bush House Arcade in November and December 2022, coinciding with UK Disability History Month.

Alongside the exhibition, the team hosted four public events, including a launch attended by around 100 guests, a webinar and two workshops. One workshop was aimed at access managers and museum professionals, with around 40 participants from organisations including the V&A, Kew Gardens, Transport for London and VocalEyes. The other targeted sight loss organisations and explored the role of co-production in policy development. In total, the exhibition welcomed 750 visitors.

The team also ran a workshop for the Sainsbury’s design team, presented learnings to the Interpretation Team at the Natural History Museum and the Art & Heritage Committee at Moorfields Eye Hospital and shared insights at the London College of Fashion and University of the Arts London.

Evaluation interviews and visitor surveys suggest that the exhibition raised awareness of the lived experience of sight loss and highlighted the importance of disability inclusion.

The Layers of Vision team has since shared learnings with the King’s Access Team, and one of the featured artworks, Decoding Difference by Zoe Partington, was later exhibited at King’s Eureka at the London Design Biennale in June 2023.

Dr Husemann recently led a pop-up exhibition with collaborator Professor Anica Zeyen and Dr Leighanne Higgins at Portcullis House in Westminster on behalf of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eye Health and Vision Impairment. The event, supported by the King’s College London ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, brought together policymakers, museum professionals, sector support bodies and sight loss organisations to collaboratively develop policy recommendations. This work, which was put on in partnership with King’s Culture, Shape Arts and Zoe Partington highlights the project’s growing national relevance and its alignment with government priorities on accessibility and equity in the arts.