As the founder of the SEND in Museums website, I run training for heritage venues in the UK and internationally, on the topic of disability access inclusion for children and young people. I also pop up at museum conferences as a speaker and have chaired the Museums Association’s (MA) annual All Inclusive online conference since it started – apart from this year, when my husband and I went on our first “child-free” holiday in 16 years.
Sixteen years? Well yes, that’s the reality for many families with disabled children facing a lack of respite support. It’s exhausting, to be honest.
My disabled daughter Lucy is, however, the reason why I am now an award-winning influencer on museum inclusion. From our early visits, which proved not only inaccessible but sometimes ableist, she inspired me to pick up my paused museum career and change the sector for the better.
This was in 2017 when very few museums knew the term “SEND” (special educational needs and disability) and even less valued their cultural inclusion. Thankfully, that has changed. Today, I work with sector support organisations to amplify this message, creating accessible awards to encourage and celebrate best practice and, more recently, developing a new generic learning outcome that values sensory engagement.
It was when I won the MA’s Radical Changemaker award (part of the Museums Change Lives Awards) in 2021 that I realised something had shifted. As an alumni of the MA’s Transformers programme (a workforce initiative for people looking to transform themselves and the sector), I’m aware of the MA’s influence and the privilege of having a space on its platforms – whether virtually, in person or in the pages of Museums Journal.
I’ve changed too, from those early days of gripping a conference lectern like an evangelist desperately trying to “sell SEND’” to becoming a much calmer collaborator. I’ve worked in partnership with museums of all shapes and sizes, supporting staff confidence, resource development and inclusive programming. From mentoring individuals to working with whole departments, my message starts the same – ask who has lived/loved experience of SEND on your staff and harness it.
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I’ve recently written about this adventure in my hybrid-memoir, charting not only mine and Lucy’s transformative journey, but the impact we have had on the UK museum sector. The Phoenix and the Unicorn offers honest insights into the difficulties families such as mine face. The book addresses the near constant battles we are drawn into just to secure the basics such as education, therapy and respite.
SEND is often portrayed in the media through a sensationalist lens as something that eats up budgets. The reality is a tedious grindstone, slowly wearing people down.
Museums genuinely can and do offer cultural respite from that and are places people can escape to and share meaningful moments of wonder. Lucy and I thank you for becoming that.
Sam Bowen developed the SEND in Museums website and is an inclusion campaigner in museums