Transports of gloom

An exhibition by a Glasgow museum is shining a light on the transport problems faced by disabled people. Elizabeth Choppin reports

Disabled people are under-represented in countless places, not least in the exhibits of the UK’s major cultural institutions.

But a project from the Department of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester has rallied nine museums and galleries in Scotland and England to stage shows that feature experiences, images, objects and film related to disabled people and their lives.

Rethinking Disability Representation*, funded by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts and the Heritage Lottery Fund, aims to take the lead in turning “elitist and unwelcoming” museums into “vibrant cultural centres that promote positive social change”.

The idea of the £500,000 project, involving a “think-tank” of disabled people that included Rachel Hurst, director of Disability Awareness in Action, is to challenge disablism by showing how disability affects people’s lives.

One such exhibition – Lives in Motion**, hosted by the Museum of Transport in Glasgow – focuses on the difficulties faced by disabled people in their daily journeys.

Among the exhibits are podcasts by BBC journalist Ian Hamilton. Mr Hamilton is blind and, like countless other disabled people, doesn’t find public transport easy to navigate. When jostled on the bus by careless passengers, it can be more like “extreme sport” than anything else – not that anyone would notice, he says.

Alongside Mr Hamilton’s podcasts is Our Journey, a photographic essay that follows wheelchair-user Peggy Boyle as she tries to manoeuvre round Glasgow by train and bus.

“It’s not easy,” says Mrs Boyle. “If you make up your mind you want to go somewhere, sometimes you just can’t go. There are a lot of us that need things improved and something should be done about it.”

During her journey, Mrs Boyle faced unmanned stations, cobbled ground and inaccessible platforms. “Some days it’s terrible for wheelchair-users,” she says.

Jackie Shields, who accompanied Mrs Boyle, agrees that the journey was not as easy as it should be. Many inaccessible buses passed them by and, more often than not, they had difficulty in getting where they wished to go.

The main thing, says John Ferry, education curator for Glasgow Museums, is that the exhibition helps to open the eyes of the general population.

“The more society is aware of the problems disabled people face, the better,” says Ferry. “There are so many more changes that need to be made in terms of transport, issues faced in cities all over the UK. An exhibition like this helps to raise awareness about that.”

*For more information, tel: 0116 252 3963 or visit www.le.ac.uk/ms/research/pub1129.html

**Lives in Motion ends on 31 October. For more information, tel: 0141 287 2720 or visit www.glasgowmuseums.com