PHOTO ESSAY: Making Italy's art accessible to people with disabilities

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ROME (AP) — Italy's art-filled cities have no shortage of tourists, but they haven’t always been welcoming to visitors with visual impairments or other disabilities.

Art that is millennia old doesn’t always lend itself to being touched. People who use wheelchairs often find elevators and doorways that are too narrow, stairs without ramps and uneven pavements.

In 2021, as a condition of receiving European Union pandemic recovery funds, Italy accelerated its accessibility initiatives, dedicating more attention and resources to removing architectural barriers and making its tourist sites and sporting venues more accessible.

The huge archaeological site at Pompeii, for example, has installed a whole new system of signage to make it more accessible to blind and disabled people. The project uses braille signs, QR-coded audio guides, tactile models and bas-relief replicas of artifacts that have been excavated over the years.

The city of Florence, meanwhile, has produced a guide on the accessibility options at the Uffizi Gallery and its other museums, with detailed information on routes and requirements — including the presence of companions — for sites such as the Boboli Gardens, which because of their historic structures are not fully accessible.

In Rome and elsewhere, projects are offering tactile visits to ancient monuments, allowing blind people to touch exhibits that would normally only be looked at.

An inclusive tourism model doesn’t just recognize the human rights of people with disabilities, it also makes economic sense. Nearly half of the world’s population aged over 60 has a disability, and disabled travelers tend to bring two or more companions, according to the World Tourism Organization.

This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors.