I’m a disabled, autistic artist and I find that most public environments are potentially inaccessible to me for myriad reasons, chiefly: the unpredictability of access when I’m using my wheelchair and the unpredictability of needing to talk to strangers to get my access needs met. More and more as discussions around accessiblity enter the art spaces, I’ve been noticing that some institutions are doing incredibly effective work towards inclusion and accessibility around physical space access needs such as ramps, automatic doors, and wheelchair accessible bathrooms. One of the best examples of creating access for autistic people is the Finnish museum Amos Rex, which has an entire page dedicated to a walk-through of the space and what people you might have to interact with at each point of entering the exhibition. But something that is still overlooked in many spaces is the impact of sound on autistic and sensory-challenged visitors like myself.

In my village we have an annual summer exhibition, and this year I find it to be especially inaccessible due to the sound installation made in one of the two exhibition rooms. The sound is so loud and echoes across both rooms making it almost impossible for me to be in the space at all, even with noise cancelling headphones on. There are actually several sound pieces in the exhibition, but most of them use sound showers, directional speakers, or headphones to limit the bleed of the sound outside of the space of the work. However one, in the main room, has two DJ-style speakers just blasting the sound into the space, which is already cavernous and echoey. The piece is not made in collaboration with any of the other works exhibited in that space, and to my mind seriously detracts from the enjoyment of any of the pieces on a purely artistic level.

But beyond the politeness of washing every other piece of art in the room with one artists’ sound, it creates a nearly inaccessible environment for me, and I suspect would be a deterrent for anyone else who is autistic and/or struggles with sound sensitivity. I just don’t understand why it’s allowed in spaces where multiple artists are exhibiting together, instead of requiring directional sound or headphones. There must also be some technological solution to this involving viewers’ own headphones and a QRC or something like that, if people don’t want to share headphones. But even with conflicting access needs like not wanting to use public headphones vs. not being able to be in a space with overwhelming sound, the clear deferral must be to those who cannot view any of the art in the room due to the sound intrusion, to my logic.

Of course this doesn’t even begin to address the issues of having sound work accessible to Deaf / HoH visitors, which I can find some studies and explorations on elsewhere. I suspect that working towards Deaf / HoH accessibility would also allow for alternative attempts at creating autistic accessibility. But for now, I wish headphones or directional speakers were required to create more accessibility for those of us who suffer from hyperacusis.