Accessible Heritage project launched by Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council’s Museum Services
Tue, November 07, 2017
How accessible is your heritage?
A group of people living with visual impairment are hoping to find out with a new project from Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council’s Museum Services.
The ‘Understanding our Area’ initiative is part of the Council’s PEACE IV Local Area Action Plan, funded by the European Union’s PEACE IV Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB), which is providing £3.5million for community projects across the Borough.
The Accessible Heritage project is designed to allow people with sight loss to gain hands-on access to different aspects of the borough’s past and highlight how they experience history in these places. Over the next 18 months, the group will conduct a range of visits to heritage sites covering the expanse of our local history – from the geology for the Giant’s Causeway and the arrival of the first people at Mountsandel, through ancient monuments and medieval churches, to more recent industrial and defensive sites.
The Mayor of Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, Councillor Joan Baird OBE said: “This innovative project is really leading the way in terms of promoting access for all to our local heritage sites. The group has shown a real passion to get to grips with the history of their area, and are committed to creating something that can be used across every part of the community.”
Jonathan Adams, Community Access Support Worker with RNIB in Northern Ireland said, "I'm really pleased to be able to work in partnership with Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council’ s Museum Service with this accessible heritage programme. It’s a fantastic opportunity, through PEACE IV funding, to establish an accessible brochure that is inclusive of people with sight loss and open to all. This is a fantastic opportunity to gain hands on access to artefacts from the past and to confidently visit local historical sites that, up until now, might have been inaccessible to many. As a sight loss charity, we at RNIB are passionate about working with community projects such as this to make local services and facilities inclusive of those who are blind or partially sighted."
The project will give a voice to the visually impaired group members, allowing them to express and share the way they experience and understand their own local history. The group aims to produce an accessible heritage guide for borough, describing places of interest and how to get there, as well as outlining the availability of information at the site itself, and any conditions that would impact on mobility. The guide will be made available in multiple formats and it is hoped that it will useful – and accessible – to all members of the community, whether they are able bodied, living with sight loss, have mobility concerns, or simply wish to push a baby in a buggy somewhere new.
