Evaluation of the accessibility of the most visited museums in Turkiye

All people in the society have right to engage in tourism activities, and also should be under equal conditions in terms of accessing to tourism activities, destinations, facilities and services. In this respect, it is very important to make sure that museums, which are one of the main components of tourism overall are accessible. In this study, with the aim of contributing to accessibility of the museums, the most visited first ten museums of the year 2022 under the governance of Turkish Republic Ministry of Culture and Tourism have been evaluated in terms of accessibility and this evaluation has been conducted according to fifty indicators defined under seven categories including information, communication, outer area and museum entrance, indoor horizontal and vertical movement, indoor feasibilities, staff, accessible and interactive applications. Indicators have been determined referring to Universal Design Principles (Connell et al., 1997) presented in order to ensure products and environments are usable for all people including disabled individuals and referring to the suggestions made in Manual on Accessible Tourism for All introduced by United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO, 2015: 187-200). Qualitative observation and document analysis methods have been used for the evaluation and five accessibility levels have been determined for accessibility assessment of the museums under research. At the end of the research, it has been found out that the accessible level for the museums under research overall is "Medium-Level Accessible". Consequently, in order to ensure that museums are more accessible, and that disabled people can participate in museum activities, general and specific suggestions have been made following the evaluations.