In this Insights post, eLaHub explores how an art gallery ‘Welcome Wall’ showed the value of visible, freely available accessibility support and inspired us to design our own eLearning Welcome Wall.
One of the things we love most at eLaHub is coming across everyday examples of accessibility that are simple, practical and make life easier for everyone. On a recent visit to the Modern One art gallery in Edinburgh, I saw a wonderful example that made a big impact on me. On one of the gallery walls, just before you entered the first exhibition room, was a collection of accessibility resources that visitors could borrow and use throughout their visit.
The wall supported a wide range of access needs, including vision, sensory and cognitive needs. Magnifying glasses, reading overlays and large-print labels supported people with different visual access needs, while sensory maps highlighted features of the gallery environment such as changes in light, noise and quieter areas. Ear defenders could support people who are sensitive to sound, including neurodivergent visitors who may experience sensory overload. Communication badges could also help people who find verbal communication difficult or who want a simple way to indicate how they would prefer to interact.
There was also clear information about quieter spaces where visitors could take time out if they needed to. Knowing that these spaces were available could help create a greater sense of psychological safety, particularly for anyone concerned that the gallery environment might become overwhelming.
A welcome wall with a much bigger message
The Welcome Wall is part of a much broader commitment to accessibility across the National Galleries of Scotland. The more I found out about the National Galleries of Scotland’s sensory-friendly work, the more impressed I became by the thought that has gone into helping people with different access needs feel welcome in their galleries. Their work includes sensory maps and welcome videos, alongside accessible resources available across their venues. Welcome areas also include resources created for and with autistic visitors, visitors with learning disabilities and people with additional sensory needs.
For me, this sets a real benchmark for what an accessible and inclusive space can be. Rather than waiting for visitors to encounter a barrier and ask for help, accessibility has been considered as part of the experience itself. The National Galleries of Scotland describes its aim very simply – “Everyone is welcome” – and the Welcome Wall is a wonderful example of putting that principle into practice.
What struck me most about the wall was not just the wide range of resources available and the care that had gone into making as many people as possible feel welcomed and included. Even more striking than that was the fact that all these resources were visible and freely available to everyone.
- Nobody had to disclose a disability.
- Nobody had to explain an access need.
- Nobody had to find a member of staff and ask whether something was available or justify why they wanted to use it.
The wall simply recognised that people experience the same environment differently and gave them options to make that experience work better for them.
Accessibility – visible, available and normalised
I first shared the Welcome Wall in a LinkedIn post about my visit to Modern One, and was delighted by the response it received. The post prompted lots of reactions and comments, with people highlighting different aspects of why the idea worked so well.
Some people highlighted the way putting accessibility resources openly on display normalised their use. Others valued the fact that support was available to anyone who wanted it, without people having to identify themselves as disabled. Another important point was that having to ask for an adjustment can itself create an access barrier.
Their responses reminded me of two important accessibility principles.
- Accessibility works best when it is built in, visible and available from the start. This way people do not have to ask for support or rely on individual adjustments. That is when accessibility begins to feel normal rather than exceptional.
- When accessibility is provided in this way, its broader benefits become much easier to see. Features introduced to support particular access needs can make the experience clearer, easier and more comfortable for many other people too. It also removes the need to make assumptions about who might need them. This is something we explore further in our Insights post, Accessible learning by default – because who are we to decide?
This made us think more carefully about what accessibility by default looks like in learning. What are the features, choices and design decisions we can build in from the start so that learners don’t have to identify a barrier, disclose a disability or access need, or ask for support before they can take part?
Our Designing Accessible Learning Content Programme is a good example of this principle in practice. Accessible features and choices are built into the programme and available to everyone from the outset. Learners do not have to declare a disability or access need, or ask for something to be provided before they can use it.
What would an eLearning Welcome Wall include?
We began exploring what the principles behind the Welcome Wall could look like when applied specifically to eLearning. At the start we considered what an eLearning Welcome Wall might include and whether it could provide a simple way of showing some of the key features that make learning accessible by default.
We quickly realised that the Welcome Wall could only ever show a selection of what accessible and inclusive learning involves. With so many relevant WCAG requirements and other inclusive design considerations, trying to include them all would have been overwhelming. Our eLaHub ultimate guide to accessible and inclusive eLearning explores the wider range of considerations in much more detail.
So instead, we focused on a small number of features and choices that could clearly communicate what accessibility by default looks like in practice. These included captions and transcripts for multimedia, keyboard navigation, screen reader support, options to resize or zoom text, good colour contrast, adjustable playback speed and reduced motion. Together, they provide a practical snapshot of the different ways learning content can be designed so that accessibility is already built in, rather than leaving learners to identify a barrier and then work out how to overcome it or ask for an adjustment.
From initial idea to first iteration
We took the idea away and developed our first eLearning Welcome Wall, then shared it with our LinkedIn community to find out what people thought. Their feedback helped us to rethink some of the features we had chosen, identify things we had missed and consider more carefully how the wall could represent accessibility without becoming overwhelming.
From there, we created a digital version and refined it again with feedback from the eLaHub accessibility testing team. That gave us another perspective on which features were most useful to make visible, how clearly they were represented and whether the wall reflected the real experience of disabled people and people with access needs.
To be continued…
This is only the first part of the eLearning Welcome Wall story. We’ll continue it in The eLaHub Accessibility Briefing, our newsletter for longer thought-leadership articles, in-depth practical guidance and strategic perspectives on accessible and inclusive learning. The newsletter will take you through the full development of the eLearning Welcome Wall. We’ll share our first iteration, the feedback we received and the changes we made as a result, including why some features stayed, why others changed and what we learnt through the process.
We’ll also share the final version and explore why we think the concept is such a useful way to communicate accessible and inclusive learning as the default, without overwhelming people with everything they need to consider. You’ll find out how one organisation has already used the idea to prompt wider accessibility conversations and initiatives. We’ll also explore how, as the idea developed, we began to think of it not only as a Welcome Wall, but as a Wonder Wall too.
Subscribe to The eLaHub Accessibility Briefing (Add link) to explore the next part of the story and access the final Welcome/Wonder Wall.
About this article
Written by: Susi Miller and the eLaHub team
Published: July 2026
Links and resources
- Modern One – National Galleries of Scotland
- Sensory-friendly resources and Welcome Wall – National Galleries of Scotland
- Original LinkedIn post about the Modern One Welcome Wall – Susi Miller, LinkedIn
- Accessible learning by default – because who are we to decide? – eLaHub Insights post
- Designing Accessible Learning Content Programme – eLaHub
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2
- Accessible and inclusive eLearning – eLaHub ultimate guide
