DDA Audit - Black Country Living Museum

• Posted by Ian Eggleton on 9th Apr ’10 at 15:35 BST
• 0 comments

Access Audit of the Black Country Living Museum

As part of a project working with the Visit Heart of England Tourist Board Evans Jones completed an Access Audit of The Black Country Living Museum in Dudley.

The museum is a ‘Living Museum’ whereby period shops, houses, workshops and even factories have been transported to the site ‘brick by brick’ and rebuilt on site to form a faithful representation of life in the Black Country over the last 150 years.

As the unique selling point of the Museum is it’s faithfulness to the period this posed serious challenges to access throughout as Inclusive Design was not on the radar of architects in the Victorian age!



Ian Eggleton, Partner in charge of Access Consultancy at Evans Jones said

“Providing access into buildings which took no account of access for disabled people when they were built whilst having no effect on their character and appearance was a significant challenge. Using a ‘human’ approach to delivering the service was often the only option which was greatly aided by knowledgeable staff whose role already involved a great deal of interaction with visitors”

Where buildings did not prove accessible to wheelchair users portable ramps were employed as a means of gaining access with zero alteration to the building. Whilst we would usually consider portable devices a last resort, in this context these were often the only means of remaining faithful to the whole concept.



Evans Jones have completed DDA Audits of a number of museum sites such as; The Corinium Museum, Cirencester; Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum; Walsall Leather Museum .

Click on the link to read more about DDA Audits or contact me by email or phone on 01242 531413.