Abstract
This paper focuses on museum audio description (AD) as a form of interpretation offered by museums as cultural creators and an instance of intersemiotic translation, primarily conceived as an accessibility tool addressed to blind people. More specifically, the contribution seeks to explore the potential of AD of cultural artifacts and artworks for non-sighted and sighted alike, thus acknowledging a shift to ‘Universal Design’ and a new ‘universality’ that recognizes diversity and particularity while fostering inclusivity, without dividing individuals into separate categories. This seems to be particularly topical, even more now that the pandemic has forced museums to rethink the ways in which they could become more inclusive, also online. By drawing on an analysis of museum-specific AD guidelines from different contexts (Italy, the UK and the US), the paper considers ADs and other interpretive texts provided online by two art museums – the Italian Pinacoteca di Brera and the Museum of Modern Art in New York – as the results of various interpretive processes about single items: the online description, the general audio guide and the AD. Selected texts describing artworks belonging to the two museums are compared to shed light on the differences between distinct layers of interpretation. Museum AD may arguably be revisited as a form of museum translation for everybody, by configuring it not only as an instrument improving access to vulnerable groups (e.g. the elderly, migrants and individuals with cognitive needs) but also as ‘guided looking’ for all, which may truly promote social inclusion.
Presenters
Chiara BartoliniPostdoctoral Researcher, Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University of Bologna, Italy
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Visitor Diversity, Disability Access, Museum Accessibility, Museum Audio Description
