More challenging is accessibility for people with cognitive impairment, autism or sensory sensitivities. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, the Jewish Museum and the Whitney Museum of American Art are among New York City museums offering gallery tours combined with studio sessions for adults and children on the autism spectrum. Meet Me at MoMA, a project for people with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia, has inspired similar programs around the country. Guidelines for accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities include universal pictograms alongside written information.
MoMA also offered audio tours on that Sunday afternoon, part of its Art inSight program for people who are blind or have low vision, now in its 20th year. Annie Leist, a museum staffer and an artist and photographer herself, took a group to a brightly colored abstract diptych called “Wind and Water,” painted in 1975 by Suzanne Jackson.
Commissioned by Sonny Bono, of the musical pair Sonny and Cher, it reflects the psychedelic culture of the time and the spiritual symbolism of 1970s Afrocentrism, Leist explained. As she encouraged the group to contribute their own observations, the shapes of figures dancing across the canvas emerged, a purple bird, a fish in the dark at the bottom. “It’s a little like reading clouds,” Ms. Leist said.
Not everyone was able to see the painting. Mr. Orlick, who is also colorblind, said that the muted pastels meant that the painting was essentially just white for him. A painting with strong color contrast is more accessible. “If someone says ‘this is a deep blue sky,’ that means more to me than this is a blue sky,” he said. “It’s like watching a black and white movie. I understand the color cognitively instead of perceptionally.”
“MoMA stands out as an institution that shows a deep commitment to their disabled visitors,” Kirsten Sweeney, co-chair of the steering committee for New York’s Museum, Arts and Culture Access Consortium (MAC), said in an email interview. (She is also accessibility and inclusion manager at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.) Ms. Sweeney praised MoMA’s training programs, which include a series of videos filmed while the museum was closed during the pandemic, in which people with disabilities talk about their museum experiences. These videos are used to train staff including security, retail, and of course guides, and are shared with other cultural institutions.
