G3ict Partners with ICOM Russia to Promote More Inclusive Museums

ATLANTA and MOSCOW (May 18, 2020) —

The Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies (G3ict), an international nonprofit with a history of leadership in digital inclusion and human rights, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Russian National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), an international organization of museums and museum professionals committed to the conservation, continuation, and promotion of the world's natural and cultural heritage. The two organizations share the commitment to the ideals of accessibility of public institutions for all categories of citizens.

Today’s agreement comes at the International Museums Day with the theme “Museums for Equality: Diversity and Inclusion” and on the eve of the Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

“We consider partnership with G3ict as a step forward in the development of our programs and projects for the promotion of accessibility of museums and collections for diverse audiences,” said Alexander Sholokhov, ICOM Russia President. “Our interaction will allow us to bring to Russia the best international experience in implementing digital accessibility and assistive technologies in the activities of our cultural institutions.”

G3ict and ICOM Russia will partner to develop and make available growing knowledge and techniques for creating a digital space accessible to all and using digital inclusion practices in museum activities. The two organizations will jointly leverage their respective programs, global networks, research, and collaborative tools to support this work.

“G3ict is committed to using the digital transformation of our world to support greater inclusion, including in museums,” said James Thurston, Vice President of G3ict. “We are proud to partner with ICOM in Russia, a country with an amazing richness of cultural institutions, to close the digital divide for persons with disabilities.”

Today, as a first collaborative project, G3ict and ICOM Russia announced they would survey museums across Russia about how technology is currently deployed to support key museum services and what are the implications for persons with disabilities. It is envisaged that the survey and its finding will be made public in a report in fall of 2020 and will inform both the guidelines on digital inclusion in the museum industry and the development of the new benchmarking and assessment tool to measure the state of digital inclusion in the museums of Russia.

“This new collaboration, including the survey project with ICOM Russia, builds on an existing ICOM Russia project “Inclusive Museum”, the activities of its Council for Digital Development of Museums, and the overall movement towards better accessibility of the museums in Russia”, underlines Yulia Sarviro, G3ict Senior Project Manager. “G3ict and its global partners bring in extensive experience and expertise to help museum industry in Russia to define the challenges and opportunities that its digital transformation present to persons with disabilities.”

“We are consciously moving towards the digital development which is inextricably linked to the aspect of digital accessibility of all areas of the museum activities”, says Vladimir Opredelenov, Deputy Director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. “We welcome the start of the cooperation between ICOM Russia and G3ict and hope for more conscious and rapid development of the mentioned areas both within each museum and between institutions, with the support of global communities and initiatives at the international level.”