Are science exhibitions for everyone? Accessibility aspects of the CERN Science Gateway exhibitions

TL;DR

The study evaluates accessibility and inclusivity of CERN Science Gateway by analyzing long-term visitor statistics and a recent internal survey. It documents three immersive exhibitions (Discover CERN, Our Universe, Quantum World) and outlines development strategies aimed at broad audience engagement through multi-level content, multilingual presentation, and inclusive design practices, including tactile elements and accessible infrastructure. Results show that the majority of visitors (over 80%) perceive the content as very well to well adapted, with adaptation strongest for those at High School or Apprenticeship levels and weaker for primary-level visitors; PhD respondents are the most critical group. The authors highlight the need for ongoing, targeted outreach to less formal education audiences and for better data on accessibility for visitors with disabilities, underscoring the importance of integrated accessibility in science outreach at large research centers.

Abstract

CERN's new flagship education and outreach centre, Science Gateway, opened its doors to the public in autumn 2023. Through a combination of immersive scenography with interactive exhibits and real scientific objects, its permanent exhibitions address the organisation's particle physics research and how this knowledge applies to other scientific fields and the visitor's everyday life. While in Discover CERN visitors learn about the accelerator and detector technologies at CERN, Our Universe covers the evolution of the Universe and the role that fundamental physics plays in it, as well as open questions in modern physics. Their underlying basic quantum mechanical principles can eventually be explored in Quantum World. Firstly, we will give a short overview of the exhibitions' highlights. Next, we delve into how various aspects of accessibility were incorporated into the exhibition development process to target the broadest audience possible and to inspire the next generation of scientists. We give an account on how this topic was approached and how inclusive exhibits and infrastructure were realised. By combining long-term visitor statistics and preliminary results of a recent visitor survey, we obtain insights about the actual audience and the visitors' perceived accessibility of the exhibitions with respect to their educational backgrounds.

Figures (4)

• Figure 1: Overview of the five sub-exhibitions in CERN Science Gateway. © CERN Upper left: Discover CERN: Accelerate. Upper middle: Discover CERN: Collide. Lower left: Our Universe: Back to the Big Bang. Lower middle: Our Universe: Exploring the Unknown. Lower right: Quantum World.
• Figure 2: An example of two exhibits exploring the common question "What are nucleons made of?" at two different levels of complexity. © CERN Left: The more complex Proton Puzzle exhibit featured in Back to the Big Bang. Right: The playful and social Proton Football exhibit at the entrance of Discover CERN: Accelerate.
• Figure 3: Collaborative prototyping workshops with different end-user groups in the content development phases of CERN exhibitions, and examples of accessibility improved exhibits in Science Gateway. © CERN Upper left: Workshop with primary school children for the Science Gateway exhibitions during the Covid pandemic. Upper right: Workshop together with the Association for the Welfare of the Blind and Visually Impaired (ABA) for the Microcosm exhibition in 2018. Lower left: Different surface textures are used to represent the components of the detector model exhibit at the entrance of Discover CERN: Collide. Lower right: A tactile timeline guiding visitors through the history of our Universe in Back to the Big Bang.
• Figure 4: Survey results of the participants' perceived accessibility of the exhibition content, classified by their general educational background.