From being a burden to being an achiever

How the participation of people with disabilities in a museum tour challenges the hierarchy of knowledge

Abstract

With the help of participant observation, conducting and systematic analysis of interviews as well as recourse to social science literature, this ethnographic study answers the question as to which learning effects the participation of people with disabilities in a museum tour can have. This participation took place within the framework of a participatory cooperation project between the Lebenshilfe Frankfurt and seven Frankfurt museums in teams of people with and without disabilities. The learning effects evolve into a cycle that leads from Teilgabe (i.e., active contribution) to revealing the formatting of participation, to agency, and via the opening of new spaces of opportunity to a democratization of knowledge and thus again to new Teilgabe. It is therefore a sustainable cycle from which all participants - institutional as well as individual - benefit in many ways. Within this cycle, people with disabilities develop from being a burden to being an achiever.