MANSIL (MUseum Access network for sensory impairments)

MANSIL (MUseum Access network for sensory impairments)MANSIL (MUseum Access network for sensory impairments)MANSIL (MUseum Access network for sensory impairments)
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  • News
  • Research project
  • British Sign Language
  • Audio Description
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    • Home
    • News
    • Research project
    • British Sign Language
    • Audio Description
    • Contact

MANSIL (MUseum Access network for sensory impairments)

MANSIL (MUseum Access network for sensory impairments)MANSIL (MUseum Access network for sensory impairments)MANSIL (MUseum Access network for sensory impairments)
  • Home
  • News
  • Research project
  • British Sign Language
  • Audio Description
  • Contact

MANSIL Research project

Blindness, deafness, and new appreciations of ancient art

This practice-led project considers three main areas of museums' access programmes: 

  • British Sign Language (BSL) tours, and how this visual-spatial language engages with visual culture
  • Audio description (AD) and visual-verbal translation
  • Touch tours and haptic appreciations of art

Its three main aims are to:

  • Facilitate more voice and agency to Deaf or blind/partially sighted people
  • Assess how these access activities might benefit hearing/sighted visitors
  • Persuade traditional academic disciplines to broaden their remit to include disabled people (for example, 'the viewer' does not always have 20:20 vision)

Activities have fallen into three main categories:

  • Pop-up events in museums
  • Online materials for testing with different audiences
  • Focus groups and other forms of public engagement, including a network of museum access staff (mostly from London)

Project Lead and publications

Ellen Adams at an Access All Senses event at the British Museum.

Dr Ellen Adams

Conference and edited volume

Conference and edited volume

Dr Ellen Adams is Reader of Classical Archaeology at King's College London, and organiser of the MANSIL network.

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Front cover of the book called Disability Studies and the Classical Body.

Conference and edited volume

Conference and edited volume

Conference and edited volume

In June 2018, Dr Ellen Adams organised an international conference with Dr Emma-Jayne Graham, now available as a volume.

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Black and white photograph of the entrance into the Parthenon Galleries at the British Museum.

Publications

Conference and edited volume

Publications

See relevant publications associated with the MANSIL project, including the edited volume on the conference. 

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activities

Audio describer in the British Museum

'Access All Senses' museum pop-ups

Information about museum events, and download free booklets

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Collection of 6 replicas of the Minoan snake goddesses

Participatory research

Information on focus groups and participatory research.

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Ellen Adams at an Access All Senses event in The British Museum

MANSIL staff network

Museum Access Network for Sensory Impairments, London (and further afield).  Access staff from over 20 museums and galleries have registered interest in MANSIL in order to share good practice and information. Contact us to join.

Contact us

reports on Activities

The three Strands of research

Deaf tour guide in The British Museum with interpreter

British Sign Language (BSL)

British Sign Language (BSL)

British Sign Language (BSL)

How this visual-spatial language is used with visual culture

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Audio describer in the British Museum

Audio Description (AD)

British Sign Language (BSL)

British Sign Language (BSL)

How we translate the visual into the verbal (or 'ekphrasis')

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Touching the frieze copies in Room 18b of the British Museum

Touch tours

British Sign Language (BSL)

Touch tours

What the sense of touch brings to art appreciation

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