How to Make Museums Inclusive of All Families

Many of us parents spend a lot of time taking our children to museums. One person has made it their mission to help museums be more welcoming experiences for all families—and their handy chart on family-inclusive language will be useful for museums and more.

Margaret Middleton is a Boston-based designer, speaker, and consultant. Yesterday, at the ExhibiTricks blog, they shared some ideas for “Family Inclusion in Museums“—everything from gender-inclusive bathrooms to better representation, seating arrangements, and membership structures. It’s definitely worth a read, and much also applies to libraries and various other kids’ activity centers.

I first mentioned Middleton last month in a post on ways museums have been inclusive of LGBTQ families. They had collaborated with photographer Matthew Clowney on an exhibit at the Boston Children’s Museum about the everyday life of Erica (aka Mimi) Tobias, a transgender grandparent, and her family.

Middleton has also created a wonderful chart on Family-Inclusive Language, which you can see in small form in this post, or purchase in a nice poster form here. They told ExhibiTricks, “A few carefully chosen words can go a long way in helping visitors feel more welcome in your museum. Start with language, and before long it will be even easier to make the case for further change.”