Designing Inclusive Cultural Heritage Experiences – an Academic Course on Enhancing Museum Accessibility for Cognitive Impairment Visitors

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in exploring the potential of state-of-the-art technologies to enhance the museum visit experience of cognitively impaired visitors. However, developing cultural heritage experiences for cognitively impaired visitors is not straightforward, and multiple factors, including knowledge about the available opportunities, desires, barriers, and abilities, affect their participation. This paper presents a multidisciplinary graduate course that collaborates with museum staff and cognitively impaired visitors to explore techniques for designing and developing such experiences. The goal is to apply universal design principles, user-centered design and co-design approaches to make the cultural heritage accessible and enhance the museum visit experience of individuals with cognitive impairment.