Reference Documents

PAC’s reference documents provide organizations with detailed guidance on specific aspects of inclusive design and accessibility, creating a clear foundation for consistent decision-making across projects and teams. These documents translate complex considerations into practical direction that can be used by staff, consultants, designers, fabricators, developers, and other partners involved in planning, producing, and operating experiences. Each reference is intended to support both immediate implementation and long-term organizational alignment by establishing shared expectations, terminology, and best practices.

These documents address a wide range of topics spanning the built environment, media access, communication, wayfinding, operational practices, and visitor-facing affordances. They are tailored to the needs and context of the organization so that the guidance is relevant, usable, and aligned with real workflows and project demands. Together, they serve as durable tools that help teams make more informed choices, reduce inconsistency, and support more inclusive outcomes over time.

Audio Description

The purpose of this document is to offer in depth instruction on creating and surfacing inclusively designed audio description. Audio description is a form of narration used to provide information on key visual elements on a digital screen or other visual medium and are to be used for all time-based media.

Furniture, Fit-up, and Equipment

The purpose of this document is to provide detailed guidance for the design and fabrication of the built elements of an experience. It focuses on the physical and constructed aspects of the built environment, including all exhibition and service areas. It encompasses the tangible elements that are designed, fabricated, and installed to create the overall environment within the museum or venue. This includes spatial considerations, furniture specifications, lighting and acoustic treatments, and material and finish selections.

Captions and Transcripts

The purpose of this document is to explain the usage of and how to design, create, and surface inclusively design captions and transcripts for time-based media.

Emergency Systems

The purpose of this document is to present best practices around emergency protocols to ensure a more safe, accessible, and inclusive experience especially for disabled visitors.

Graphic Design

The purpose of this document is to lay out considerations for inclusive and accessible graphic design. These considerations span typography, color choice, contrast, readability, and accessibility.

Large Print Guides

The purpose of this document is to offer instruction on creating large print guides which are a hand-held, in-gallery affordance that visitors may reference throughout their journey. They may include labels, exhibition text, and any other text displayed as large print. This is especially helpful if text in the gallery does not meet accessibility guidelines but can also be a preference for visitors and should be provided regardless of wall text size.

People Movers

The purpose of this document is to provide best practices for the development and design of people movers, offer practical examples for the various tactics that can be used, and propose areas of opportunity for innovation. Elevators, escalators, stairs, ramps, etc. are all used to move people through a space. The environmental and interface design treatments of people movers and how they operate as a system is critical to an inclusive and welcoming environment.

QR Codes

The purpose of this document is to outline the key considerations for the inclusive design, production, surfacing, and use of QR codes within the built environment. This includes guidance on where and how QR codes should appear, how they are integrated into physical and digital experiences, and how their placement, scale, contrast, and tactile affordances influence usability. It also addresses the relationship between QR codes and other interpretive or wayfinding systems, considerations for durability and long-term maintenance, and best practices to ensure that QR-enabled experiences remain accessible, discoverable, and meaningful for the widest possible audience.

Sensory Room

Sensory rooms are spaces that allow for quiet and calming isolation from sensory stimulation of programmed activities like museum exhibitions, themed experiences, and location-based entertainment. There are many facets for consideration when designing, developing, building, and operating a sensory room. The details included in this reference outline the affordances that require consideration by the architects, general contractors, designers, and staff of the museum.

Tactile Vocabulary

The purpose of this document is to outline the role of a tactile vocabulary as a modality for storytelling and a tool for creating an inclusive wayfinding system. A variety of tactile reliefs, patterns, and applications can surface information that is directional, destination, warning of hazards, didactic, and instructional.

Wayfinding

The purpose of this document is to elaborate on the approach to wayfinding as a system of interconnected facets that must work together to help people navigate and orient themselves within 3D space as well as the information systems, services, and programs that inhabit that 3D space.

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