Members of the Balkan Museum Access Group (BMAG) have been very active in the past months visiting four museums, members of BMN. National museum of Leskovac; House of Leaves, The Museum of Secret Surveillance; Museum of Vojvodina; and Institute and Museum Bitola that applied to be the venue of access survey had a privilege to host BMAG in a mission to survey, identify and propose actions to reduce barriers. The teams of two access consultants from BMAG spent three days in each museum looking at different physical, sensory, attitudinal, intellectual and cultural barriers. Surveying is done in a participatory way, discussing the existing barriers for disabled people in partnership with the host museum, both management of the museum and the staff. The process will result with the report and an overview of the current situation with recommendations for the improvements.

This was a pilot phase and BMAG members will continue to offer access survey services to member museums of the Balkan Museum Network. Helping museums become more accessible for disabled people is the strategic focus of BMN.

The process of access surveys is part of the project “Stories of the Balkans – Building capacity of museum professionals in interpretation and access to museums” funded by Headley Trust from UK.