Assessing the museum environment accessibility for disable people

The intensive inclusive tourism development around the world reflects the trend of involving people with disabilities in public life. This, in turn, puts forward requirements for enterprises and facilities involved in tourism to organize an accessible environment for tourists with special needs. Museums are the most important components of recreational systems, and for them the issues of museum environment accessibility are of primary importance. The article discusses the concept of accessible environment, identifies its main parameters. The authors analyze the experience of Russian museums working with visitors with disabilities and identify the main methods, techniques and mechanisms that are used by them to create an accessible environment. The article presents the research results of the needs of visitors with disabilities when visiting museums, identifies specific needs that can only be satisfied by a few museums today. As a result, the authors have developed a assessment form for the museum environment accessibility, which can be used by both experts and museum staff, and the results obtained can be integrated with geoinformation services to improve the museums’ information accessibility.