#IAW2025 Webinar – Are Archives Accessible? Partnering with Communities to Transform Access to Archives

The International Council on Archives (ICA) is pleased to invite all members and the wider archival community to a special webinar taking place on Wednesday, 11 June 2025 at 16:00–17:30 CET (Paris time) during International Archives Week 2025 (IAW2025) titled: 

Are Archives Accessible? Partnering with Communities to Transform Access to Archives  

This online event is part of International Archives Week 2025—now in its seventh edition—which explores the global theme #ArchivesAreAccessible – Archives for Everyone. Selected by over 300 participants in a global poll, this theme invites archivists and institutions to go beyond digitisation and address the physical, technological, and systemic barriers that continue to limit access to archives for many communities. 

Through this 90-minute webinar facilitated by Dr Nampombe Saurombe (University of South Africa (UNISA), we will hear from archival professionals who are redefining access in collaboration with Indigenous communities, disabled and neurodiverse individuals, and others whose experiences have often been overlooked in traditional archival systems. Their work demonstrates how accessibility is not only about removing barriers—it’s about reimagining archives as inclusive, co-created spaces of memory and identity. 

More information on the panellists and details on how to register can be found below.  

The webinar is free and open for anyone to join. Registration is required to receive full details on how to connect to this virtual meeting.   

Webinar description 

This 90-minute panel will explore community-led approaches to transforming access to archives, with a focus on equity, justice, and inclusion. Through a series of case studies and reflections, speakers will share how they have partnered with historically marginalised groups—such as Indigenous communities and disabled, chronically ill, and neurodiverse individuals—to reimagine access on their terms. 

Topics include: 

• “Sensing the Archives”, discussed by Ellen Oredsson, an educational workshop designed from the ground up for blind and partially sighted students using a combination of sensory props, original documents and 3D-printed tactile images. This project is made possible through collaborations with external partners George Rhodes, who designs and creates the tactile images, and Kate Antolak, a teaching consultant. Based on research done by Ellen Oredsson as part of the 2023-24 RLUK/TNA Professional Fellowship Scheme, this project culminated in a successful pilot workshop with New College Worcester in March 2024.  

• The workings of Canada’s National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), discussed by Raymond Frogner. The NCTR currently houses more than four million records. The overwhelming majority of these records consist of those created or collected by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) during its mandate. The NCTR also actively collects records on various issues and subject areas important to Indigenous communities across the country. This archive supports multiple ways of knowing. By incorporating Indigenous perspectives on memory, archival practice and ownership, it has become something new — a decolonising archive built on principles of respect, honesty, wisdom, courage, humility, love and truth. Respecting and valuing the authority of Survivors, Elders, Indigenous Peoples and traditional knowledge keepers responsible for bearing, interpreting and determining access to traditional knowledge within the appropriate protocols of language, environment, and culture is essential in this work.  

• “Archives and Accessibility for Disabled, Chronically Ill, and Neurodiverse Users”, presented by Dr Maria Castrillo and Dr Ann-Marie Foster. Although disabled people make up approximately 25% of the population, and 20% of people are neurodivergent, their needs as users of archives are all too often treated on an ad hoc basis – an add on after user services have been designed, responded to reactively rather than proactively. What happens if archives begin to react proactively, and what does this change look like in structures designed with non-disabled users in mind? The panelists will discuss the work being done at Imperial War Museums and elsewhere to make archival spaces more accessible. They will discuss challenges and barriers to access, for both in-person and online collections, before speaking about the opportunities for change this brings. Focusing on the work at IWM they will speak about the problems they are addressing and how tackling them looks at a large organisation, while signposting to other people and projects who are doing excellent work to push back barriers to access.