ROM wins Ontario’s Accessible Tourism Award

The ROM is proud to announce that we have been honoured with Ontario’s Accessible Tourism Award at the 2015 Ontario Tourism Awards of Excellence. Creating access at the ROM is a journey which our Museum has embraced, and this recognition is a great testament to our direction.

The Ontario Tourism Awards of Excellence are a celebration of industry success and are jointly presented by the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario (TIAO), the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation (OTMPC) and the Ontario Culinary Tourism Alliance (OCTA). 2015 marks the first year that Ontario Tourism has presented an award in this category, and this highlights the ever-increasing recognition of the importance of accessibility and inclusion in the customer service and tourism industries.

As Assistant Vice President of the Audience team, I have the privilege of seeing the wide range of visitors who visit our Museum on a daily basis, and seeing how the diversity of these audiences continues to grow. As a Museum, we are committed to ensuring that all visitors, regardless of level of ability, have equal opportunity to enjoy and be inspired by our exhibitions and programming.

Over the past few years, I have seen an exponential growth in the popularity of our accessibility programming, which includes: tactile tours, ASL-interpreted tours, Alzheimer tours, and a range of Accessible Digital Media. We are fortunate to work with such great community partners, through the ROM Community Access Network, where we distribute over 75,000 complimentary tickets to communities who may otherwise be unable to visit the Museum. Recently, we have released a ROM Guide for Visitors with Autism, created in collaboration with Autism Ontario, and we look forward to collaborating on similar future initiatives.

It is important to note that we at the ROM see this Award as a continuation of a much longer journey. We invite you to stay tuned for more exciting partnerships and initiatives coming soon. More importantly, we invite you to join us in this journey. What else can and should we be doing to make our Museum inclusive to more audiences? Email us at accessibility@rom.on.ca or let us know at www.rom.on.ca/comments!

For more information on our accessibility related programming, please visit www.rom.on.ca/access.