The Accessibility of Museum Websites

Abstract

Tourism accessibility has emerged as a topic to be discussed and studied by both academics and professionals. In this line, museums have started to adapt their offer to their diverse audience, including people with disabilities and people with special needs. In this regard, museum websites, as a powerful information channel to promote visitation, must also be adapted to make its information accessible. Therefore, this chapter aims at exploring accessibility and accessible information of museums' websites using a holistic approach. As a case study, 45 museums in the city of Barcelona are considered and accessibility of tourism websites is assessed by means of content analysis, taking as reference four categories and 36 items that have emerged from previous literature review. Findings reveal that museums websites are still far from being considered accessible, and improvements in several areas are required.