Enabled Archaeology in the Field, in Museums, and the Visitor Experience

This chapter explores the relationship between enabled archaeology in the field, interpretation methods in museums, and the visitor experience in the United Kingdom (UK). It is based on the principle that whilst culture is often held up as a panacea to the issues we see in modern society, it is in fact ‘closely related to inequality’ (Brook et al. 2020, 1). The chapter looks at the inequalities and lack of inclusion experienced by dis/Abled people working and volunteering in, and visiting, archaeological sites and museums (O’Mahony 2018). This is because ‘who produces culture reflects social inequality’ and the ‘workforce in cultural occupations and cultural industries is highly unequal’ and it has been identified that the numbers of dis/Abled people engaging with culture are far fewer than those not reporting a dis/Abilty (Brook et al. 2020, 2). The core argument here then is that if archaeology and museum workforces are not enabled and organizations fail to ensure that their workforces includes dis/Abled people it is highly likely that museums will not meet the needs of all their visitors regardless of dis/Ability (Kajda et al. 2015).