The museum has been shortlisted in the categories of Best Accessible Museum and Best Museum Youth Group.
It is the only museum to have been shortlisted in more than one category!
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| The entrance to the Wakefield One building, which houses Wakefield Museum |
Charity Kids in Museums has run the prestigious annual award since 2004, recognising the most family-friendly heritage sites in the UK.
From late March to early June, families and museums across the UK could vote for their favourite heritage attraction on the Kids in Museums website.
A panel of museum experts then whittled down hundreds of nominations to a shortlist of 19 heritage attractions.
We get to find out if we've won at the awards ceremony in October.
You can learn about our Youth Group, the 'Wakefield: Where We Are...' project here. This has now evolved into our new Youth Forum for Wakefield Museums and Castles.
Read on to explore just some of what we've done to make Wakefield Museum more accessible for all:
Relaxed openings
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| A visitor interacting with a touch element in the new Seeing Double exhibition |
Every Thursday from 4pm to 6.30pm at Wakefield Museum is a relaxed opening session. Visitors can explore the Museum in a quieter, more relaxed setting.
Everybody is welcome! And everybody is welcome to be their full selves.
Any loud noises from videos and interactives are turned down or turned off. Lighting levels are kept low and consistent. This all works to reduce sensory overload and generate a relaxed atmosphere.
There is also a pop-up tent quiet space for anyone who needs it. We don't book groups during this session to help keep the museum quieter.
Pick and Mix station
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| The Pick and Mix station at Wakefield Museum |
We have Pick and Mix stations at all three of our museums. They are full of beautiful tactile tools and resources to support our visitors to get the most out of their visit.
The 'Explore' drawer contains a variety of things to explore our displays in lots of different ways. These include tools to match different shapes, colours, materials and sounds to our objects.
The 'Touch' drawer has a range of fun colourful fidget toys. Perfect if keeping your hands busy helps you to stay calm or to concentrate!
The 'See' drawer is full of different lenses, magnifying glasses and frames. These can help you to look at our objects in another way, and support dyslexic and partially sighted people to change the colour contrast.
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| Our Visitor Experience Assistant Nat with two small coloured panels from the 'See' drawer |
The 'Sound' drawer has a number of ear defenders available in child and adult sizes. These are great for visitors who are sensitive to loud or sudden noises.
You can also fill up one of our backpacks with a range of items for easy carrying around the galleries!
Makaton
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| The Makaton sign for 'ring' and the Sandal Castle ring on display |
Makaton is a unique language programme that uses symbols, signs and speech to enable people to communicate.
We have Makaton signage next to star objects around the museum, showing you how to sign that word.
Most of our Visitor Experience Assistance have had Makaton Awareness training, and we are busy arranging training sessions for our lovely new starters!
Our yearly SEND Christmas event is visited by a Makaton Aware Father Christmas too.
Sensory maps and visual stories
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| The sensory map for the Seeing Double temporary exhibition |
We have sensory maps for our temporary exhibition gallery and the main permanent gallery.
They show you where audio, visual and hands-on elements are in the space. They also show where seating is available, and any other things like mirrors that may cause sensory overload for visitors.
We also have a visual story for the main museum. This explains what a visit to the museum is like and shows you what is here before you visit. Visual stories are particularly helpful for autistic people and people with anxiety, or anyone who likes to know what to expect when visiting a new place.
Both the sensory maps and the visual story are available to download in advance from our Access page.
Easy Read guide
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| The Easy Read guide at Wakefield Museum |
We now have an Easy Read guide for the main gallery at Wakefield Museum.
Easy read information is presented in a certain way to help people understand information more easily. Photos and illustrations help to explain the information provided.
It is especially useful for learning disabled people and people with low reading ages. It is also helpful for people for whom English is a second language. It can be used by anyone who wants bite-sized information about the museum's main themes.
Hidden Disabilities awareness
We are aware that not all disabilities or access needs are easily identifiable. We also know some of our visitors may prefer to be discreet about their needs and requirements.
We are proud to support the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower scheme. The scheme helps us to increase our understanding and awareness of hidden disabilities.
Our staff wearing a Sunflower scheme badge can be approached to offer support if needed.
Home Education programme
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| Two young visitors looking at a crocodile skull in the Wakefield Museum Learning Zone |
We know mainstream schooling isn't for everyone, for lots of different reasons. At Wakefield Museum and Pontefract Castle we have an exciting and varied Home Education programme that runs during term-time.
These popular sessions provide home educating families and groups with hands-on experiences exploring the many things our collections can teach us.
Our Home Education sessions have been developed in consultation with regular users. We have learned not to make assumptions about what they need. We develop extra activities for those who need it, when they need it.
Our main programme is aimed at ages 6 to 11. As our regular home educated children are getting older, we are working with them and their families to develop sessions for ages 12+ as well.
Our Home Education sessions are bookable on our Ticketsource page. We also have a dedicated Home Education e-newsletter.
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| Some Egyptian-inspired amulets made at a Home Education session |
Relaxed and SEND activity sessions
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| Our Casual Learning Enabler Tracey demonstrating crafts to visitors at our SEND Christmas event |
Throughout the year we have a range of relaxed and SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) activity sessions for our family and adult visitors.
Every year we have a dedicated SEND Christmas event, with reduced numbers, a relaxed atmosphere and a wide range of festive multisensory crafts and activities. Our Father Christmas is Makaton aware and great at communicating with visitors with a range of communication styles.
Our SEND sessions of our school holiday activities are designed to offer the same or similar experiences to the main programme, in a relaxed atmosphere. They are bookable to help us keep the number of attendees low and give everybody more space.
We also have relaxed sessions for under 5s this summer at Wakefield Museum, for toddlers and adults alike who prefer a more chilled time together!
We have also been celebrating Learning Disability Week each year across our sites, with a range of relaxed object handling and crafts sessions for learning disabled adults and their family and friends.
Polish translation for temporary exhibition
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| The Polish translation booklet for the Seeing Double exhibition |
We have a Polish translation of the information panels in our new Seeing Double: The story of Double Two shirts exhibition.
Polish is the second most widely spoken language in the Wakefield district. We're delighted to make our new exhibition more accessible for our local Polish community.
Access information for Wakefield Museum
We believe strongly that making our visitor experience more accessible for one group of people makes it more accessible for everybody. We are constantly working to improve and enhance the accessibility of all of our sites, and working with local groups and experts by experience to do this.
We always welcome feedback on how we can make our sites more accessible!
Well done on the nominations I hope you win.
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