Accessibility to culture and heritage: designing for all

Abstract

The paper examines the accessibility to heritage for all people by defining three moments: a) physical accessibility: the visitor to / receiver of a cultural good uses his/her body structure and functions in order to move inside the product in its original material manifestation or experience sensorially its tangible or intangible reproductions, b) perceptual accessibility: the moment of understanding culture/heritage and it has to do with the perceptiveness of the receiver and is closely linked to the receiver's educational background, way of living and habitual mode of intellectual operation and finally c) appropriational accessibility: the apex of accessibility is the combination of the two previously acquired moments and it happens when the visitor/receiver may consider culture/heritage as part of himself/herself (familiarization) and use the adopted experience to intertwine his/her own story (narrational production). The suggested framework is based on the idea of a sustainable and multidisciplinary management of culture, heritage and tourism, which is inspired by the basic principle of the Integrated Design: all citizens should enjoy the same privileges and the same quality services. Lastly, the paper attempts to clarify some of the confusions that are associated with the concept of accessibility, to propose policies that may enhance accessibility to all cultural activities and to provide some guidelines for the strategic management of accessibility to cultural property.