Reimagine Art and Creativity, Autistic audiences meet Iran Art Museum

Across the world, several museums are committed to accessibility and accommodations for the general public, such as closed captions for the D/HH (deaf and hard-of-hearing) visitors and ramps for wheelchair users. However, not all disabilities and disorders are visible, it is critical that museum professionals be aware of what should be done to ensure that visitors with disabilities or disorders have a pleasant experience in the museum.
Numerous museums have already created programs for people with specific disabilities or disorders. Autism spectrum disorder is one of the most challenging disorders in statistical guidelines and diagnosis of mental disorders.
How can individuals with Autism benefit from museums? What additional features can museums provide as services to the Autism community?
The importance of museums' attention to all people in the society, including people with autism, is necessary to pay attention to their programs and to change society's attitude toward this spectrum of individuals, as well as to reduce social deprivation of these people.
These people with disabilities have ideals in their individual and social lives, such as "interpretation of landscapes, entertainment, self-examination, escapism, the ability to forget everyday problems without the help of others, feelings of relief, etc., which today is possible through cultural activities.
But the question is, what is the duty of the museum as a cultural and social institution to these people and how can it be effective in increasing the presence of these people in society? For this reason, it is essential to examine a number of issues related to each other, namely, access, participation and interaction of the museum with these people. One of the needs of these people is access.
Access to museums is not only physical access and entrance to the building, but also conceptual, intellectual and intuitive access in real and virtual online, as well as the ability to read text, listen to audio and video media, etc.
In this regard, on World Museum Day (May 18th), The Art  Museum of Iran held a workshop in two days. On the first day that presented by professionals and guest speakers to spread awareness to train personnel in how to deal with ASD children and to identify this disorder and how museums can be made more accessible to them.
On the second day, a group of autistic children with families visited the Museum, the group also consisted of young individuals with low, middle, and high-functioning abilities (low being low verbal skills and high being Asperger syndrome), and after visit the museum held an art-making activity with the theme of museum experience. Finally, questionnaires were given to autism children and their families, to examine behaviors of children with ASD while in the museum, and to see if an art-making activity after the museum visit is directly tied to the museum experience.
Results indicated that museums continue to be stressful for families, and parents would like materials to help reduce anxiety in their children before and during the visit. Art-making after the museum visit allowed children to reflect back on what they saw and did during their experience.