ABSTRACT
In developing exhibitions there is a tendency to think in terms of a relatively homogeneous audience, in the sense that visitors are expected to behave rationally, exhibit no perceptual problems bar those created by the designer, and to be physically unimpaired. However, visitors do potentially include many people that do not fit this description and, if disabled people are missing among the visitors to an exhibition, the chances are that they have been deliberately or inadvertently excluded. For example, in Britain it is estimated that some 10 per cent of people, about 5 million, are permanently disabled. As significant is the fact that 95 per cent of people are likely to suffer some form of disablement during their lifetime. Most disabled visitors want to visit exhibitions as much as anyone else and even those with the most severe disabilities are likely to get something from a visit. The fact that little attention is paid to the disabled is evident from the paucity of information in the museum literature.
