Accessible museums in Spain: the Guggenheim case

Abstract

Accessible museums in Spain: the case Guggenheim. Cultural tourism is prominent in Spain attracting 7.5 million domestic tourists and international tourists 12’6 million (Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, 2012), with the visit to the museum one of the most popular activities a market in which the representation of disabled tourists is increasing. Hence the importance of removing barriers in these cultural spaces so that people with disabilities can access them on equal terms, without causing discrimination. Given the importance of incorporating universal accessibility in museums and in the absence of studies on the subject, this research focuses on
knowing the regulations governing accessibility in museums, the requirements for achieving accessible museums and supply current accessible museums in Spain. Also delve into the analysis of the standard that certifies universal accessibility in museums, the UNE-170001-2 AENOR, focusing our investigation on the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum, the only museum to be certified to this standard. For this, we used as a research methodology the case method. As a result of this investigation we present the procedure to follow to achieve this certification, as well as some of the measures taken by the museum accessibility studied in order to serve as a reference for incorporating universal accessibility in other Spanish museums.