Accessibility and usage of cultural heritage by the disabled users: Understanding of parents’ points of view

Background: Italian educational system express a growing attention toward the strategies utilized for improving the accessibility and participation for all individuals, but not always for the disabled users’ needs, underestimating the value of inclusive education in various contexts of everyday life. Method: A preliminary study with 82 parents of children and preadolescents with intellectual disability, sensory impairments, and physical disability was carried out adopting the “inclusive research paradigm” to investigate parents’ perceptions, levels of satisfaction, and attitudes toward obstacles/facilitators to accessibility and usage of cultural heritage sites in Sicilian context. Results: Using an online questionnaire, parental satisfaction degree with accessibility to cultural heritage sites by the disabled users is rather low, mainly in relation to elimination of architectural barriers and to the offered information by these sites to disabled people. Most parents of disabled users believe that these sites are partially or not at all accessible to people with physical disabilities and the same results are observed for users with sensory and intellectual disabilities. Additionally, they agree with the idea that guides and internal staff in places of cultural heritage are partially or not at all prepared to welcome people with disabilities, and haptic routes and audio guides are not at all suitable for sensory impaired users. Conclusions: Knowing the parents’ attitudes might make possible the comprehension of obstacles and facilitators in accessing these cultural heritage sites and the creation of different opportunities for presenting information and other materials in an inclusive way