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, such as Art History, 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

News and activities

Museum pop-ups

Information about museum events, and download free booklets

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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.

The website of the 'Language and Landscape in Holyrood Park' project

Focus groups

Five focus groups were held in May-June 2023 to assess the Holyrood Park BSL project and the Many Lives of a Snake Goddess materials

Project Lead and publications

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

Dr Ellen Adams

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

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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MANSIL: Museum Access Network for Sensory Impairments (London)

MANSIL: Museum Access Network for Sensory Impairments (London)

MANSIL Research project

Blindness, deafness, and new appreciations of ancient art