Much cultural exclusion happens before people even go in. An incomprehensible website, a form that does not work with a keyboard, an unclear price or having no way of knowing whether there will be somewhere to rest is enough to make someone give up. That decision rarely leaves a record. The institution counts tickets, not the people who never arrived.
Accessibility is not an isolated service or a list of resources. It is a chain of decisions that starts with programming, runs through communication, purchase, arrival, orientation and experience, and ends with evaluation and archiving. A break at any point can make the rest useless.
This guide builds on Before the visit: cognitive accessibility in museums and is related to ‘Hold’ by Tarek Atoui: listening with the body, which examines how advance information shapes autonomy even when the tactile dimension is part of the work.
The indicators included are practical proposals, not legal standards. The guide offers general information and does not replace a technical or legal audit of the venue, service or website.
Principles
- Design first, adapt later. Correcting at the end costs more and leaves intact the structure that produced the barrier.
- Address several dimensions. Accessibility is physical, sensory, cognitive, communicative, economic and digital.
- Inform so people can decide. Anticipating conditions lets each person judge whether they want to and can attend.
- Pay for expertise. The participation of people with disabilities is expert work when it is used to design, test or evaluate.
- Offer equivalent alternatives. An adaptation should not dilute essential content or push it into a marginal time slot.
- Allow people to leave and return. Resting, leaving or changing route is part of an accessible experience.
- Protect privacy. Asking for support should not require disclosing a diagnosis to third parties.
- Measure the people who give up. Unfinished enquiries, abandoned bookings and advance questions also reveal barriers.
Programming and budget
Accessibility fails when it arrives as an afterthought, without authority or resources. Before commissioning a work or announcing an activity:
- Appoint a responsible person with the power to change decisions.
- Budget for support, testing, translation, staff and maintenance.
- Build accessibility requirements into contracts and schedules.
- Identify which parts of the experience are essential and which alternatives can be offered.
- Consult from the design stage, not after installation.
- Agree remuneration, credits and use of contributions.
Asking late forces a choice between opening with barriers and delaying the project. No automated tool replaces testing with users and assistive technologies.
Proposed indicator: proportion of the budget and design decisions that build in accessibility before production.
Before the visit
The aim is for a person to be able to decide without having to phone, explain a need or take risks that the institution could have described.
Publish in one stable place:
- Opening hours, prices, free admission and conditions for companions.
- Estimated duration and usual waiting time.
- Transport, distance from stops and accessible parking.
- Photographs of the entrance, ticket desk, routes, lifts and rest areas.
- Gradients, steps, doors, surfaces and relevant dimensions.
- Accessible toilets and baby-changing facilities.
- Availability of seating and whether a portable seat may be brought.
- Conditions regarding sound, darkness, flashing lights, smells, smoke, touch, temperature or crowding.
- Use of headphones, induction loops, subtitles, transcripts, audio description, sign language or tactile resources.
- Lower-sensory-load sessions and how they differ from the regular programme.
- Policy on assistance dogs, personal support and personal devices.
- Contact channel, responsible person and response time.
Do not use ‘accessible’ as a catch-all label. Describe specific conditions. A wheelchair user, a person with low vision and a person who needs cognitive anticipation do not take the same information from that word.
Provide the information in accessible HTML and plain language. A PDF can supplement it, but should not be the only way to find essential content. If a visual story exists, keep it up to date when the entrance, security or route changes.
Proposed indicator: percentage of essential decisions that can be made without asking for further information.
Booking and purchase
An accessible activity can become inaccessible in its ticketing system. Check that it is possible to:
- Browse and complete the purchase using a keyboard.
- Understand error messages and correct them without losing data.
- Request a support place or resource without paying an unwarranted surcharge.
- Save and resume the process.
- Buy or book through more than one channel where an unresolved barrier exists.
- Know the final price before payment.
- Avoid session timeouts that are too short.
- Receive confirmation in an accessible format.
Ask only for the data you need. Access needs can reveal information about health or disability; limit their use, access and retention. Do not put diagnoses on visible accreditation.
Proposed indicator: percentage of booking tasks that can be completed with a keyboard and assistive technologies without staff intervention.
Arrival and orientation
Consistency between website and venue reduces dependence. If the announced entrance changes, update the information and provide signage from the intended point.
- Make access recognisable from the exterior.
- Make sure the accessible entrance does not look secondary or like a service entrance.
- Offer a welcome point that does not require conversation.
- Provide simple maps and alternative routes.
- Signpost quiet areas, toilets, lifts and exits.
- Keep routes clear of obstacles.
- Train staff to ask before assisting and to accept a refusal.
- Anticipate queues, security checks and evacuation.
Orientation does not depend on signs alone. Lighting, contrast, acoustics, colour, spatial cues and staff form a single system.
Proposed indicator: number of orientation decisions that can be made without asking for help.
Experience and mediation
Accessible mediation does not simplify everything until nothing is left. It organises information in layers and allows for different paces and channels.
- Combine text, audio, images, tactile resources and personal mediation where appropriate.
- Test easy-read content with the people who will use it.
- Avoid a childlike tone unless the audience is children.
- Subtitle and transcribe audiovisual material; provide audio description where appropriate.
- State the duration, cycles and access times of time-based pieces.
- Allow breaks and re-entry.
- Place seating along the route.
- Do not make physical, digital or verbal interaction the only route to the content.
- Say what may be touched instead of relying on unstated prohibitions.
- Schedule low-stimulation sessions without relegating them to times that are hard to use.
- Test resources before opening and after every technical change.
An equivalent alternative need not be identical. It must give access to the core of the experience, without offering an impoverished version or one detached from the programme.
Proposed indicator: number of equivalent routes to essential content.
Participation and co-creation
Consulting is not the same as sharing decisions. Before inviting people with disabilities to take part:
- Define what can change and what is already settled.
- Pay for time, preparation and travel.
- Provide materials in advance.
- Accept oral, written, visual or assisted contributions.
- Offer support without requiring a public explanation.
- Agree credits, archiving, reuse and withdrawal.
- Do not demand personal testimony to legitimise a recommendation.
- Publish which changes were accepted and which were not, with the reasons.
Do not let the institution accumulate stories, images and data that it later uses without the control of those who took part.
Proposed indicator: proportion of the budget and substantive decisions under shared control.
Digital environment
Digital accessibility does not end with a generic statement. Review real tasks:
- Checking opening hours and conditions.
- Searching for content.
- Buying or booking.
- Signing up for an activity.
- Contacting the institution.
- Accessing materials after the visit.
Keep navigation consistent, focus visible, structure semantic and the site operable by keyboard. Describe relevant images, provide subtitles and transcripts, label forms correctly and avoid publishing essential information only in inaccessible documents.
Royal Decree 1112/2018 regulates websites and mobile applications of the public sector. Law 11/2023 transposed into Spanish law the European accessibility requirements for certain products and services, including e-commerce, applicable from 28 June 2025. This does not automatically bring every private cultural website under the same obligations, but it does cover services within its scope.
The harmonised European reference remains EN 301 549, based on WCAG 2.1, until the version incorporating WCAG 2.2 is cited as the corresponding legal reference. Technical compliance is a minimum; it does not show that the information is understandable or that the whole journey can be completed.
Proposed indicator: percentage of essential tasks that can be completed without help and with assistive technologies.
After the visit
Evaluation should not place on the people who were excluded the whole burden of detecting barriers.
- Offer a short, accessible way to report problems.
- Ask about specific situations, not just satisfaction.
- Record who is responsible, the priority and the deadline.
- Analyse earlier enquiries that did not end in a visit.
- Review drop-outs without intrusive monitoring.
- Check whether the announced support was actually available.
- Publish improvements and their planned dates.
- Keep a record of decisions so that the same diagnosis is not repeated in every project.
Do not turn every problem into an individual exception. If several people need to ask for the same thing, the solution should be built into the ordinary service.
Proposed indicator: percentage of barriers identified that lead to a verifiable, lasting change.
Regulatory framework
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognises in Article 30 the right to take part in cultural life on an equal basis with others. Universal accessibility forms part of the Spanish framework through the consolidated text of the General Law on the rights of persons with disabilities.
Law 6/2022 expressly incorporated cognitive accessibility. Royal Decree 707/2026 approved the Regulation on the basic conditions of cognitive accessibility and will enter into force on 2 January 2027, with provisions on information, communication, services, buildings and cultural settings within its scope.
UNE standards can offer methods, but their public catalogue entry is no substitute for the full text. UNE 153101:2018 EX sets out guidelines for easy-read writing and validation; UNE-EN 17161:2020 addresses design for all in organisations.
The specific obligation depends on whether the body is public or private, and on the service, the building, the autonomous community and other applicable rules. An institution must identify its own framework and must not use this guide as an opinion on compliance.
Checklist
- ☐ Accessibility has a person responsible, a budget and a schedule.
- ☐ The website lets people decide whether a visit is possible.
- ☐ Booking and purchase work with a keyboard and assistive technologies.
- ☐ Entrance, orientation, rest and exit are described.
- ☐ Relevant stimuli are announced in advance.
- ☐ There is more than one route to essential content.
- ☐ The participation of people with disabilities is paid.
- ☐ Access needs are handled with respect for privacy.
- ☐ Problems have someone responsible and a deadline.
- ☐ Improvements are checked and sustained.
Itineraries
I am going to sell or exhibit
Build accessibility into the contract, schedule, installation, mediation and communication. Describe the real conditions of the work and define alternatives before opening. Do not leave all responsibility with the host venue.
I manage a cultural space or project
Turn exceptional support into ordinary procedures. Measure not only attendance but also the tasks people can carry out independently, the barriers identified and the changes that last beyond the project.
On the open conversation
Accessibility takes shape in varied spaces, teams and experiences. If you work in design, mediation or access evaluation and notice an omission that should be added, you can write to me.