Abstract
Digital accessibility and assistive technology are beneficial to people with disabilities and must be broadly available. Our project investigates how to design technology to support different textual and multimedia sense-making activities before, during, and after a museum visit. We actively explored ways to include individuals with disabilities in all design steps, including planning, developing, and assessing prototypes to fully understand users’ requirements, expectations, and preferences by following a collaborative design paradigm. Our project examines the potential of three main types of interventions that have naturally emerged from the literature and are effective with this population: Augmented Reality, Accessible Applications, and Multisensory Experiences. Multisensory Experiences allow users to interact with the Museum content via multiple senses. We explore the potential of an electronic diorama in the context of a museum visit to improve participants’ engagement and empowerment, while the “This is me!” project aims to assist people in representing themselves, communicating, and crafting their preferences. By concentrating on accessibility and engagement through multimodal stimuli and creating a functional and tangible prototype with a matching game, we wanted to enhance the participants’ experience. The design team includes educators, psychologists, and cultural mediators. We discuss their involvement, contribution, and role in understanding the visitors better. We also present the focus of the research, the methodology we employed, our work thus far, and the lessons we have gained from it.
Presenters
Leandro S. GuedesDoctoral Assistant, Faculty of Informatics, Università della Svizzera italiana, Ticino (it), Switzerland Monica Landoni
Professore titolare, Faculty of Informatics, Università della Svizzera italiana , Ticino (it), Switzerland
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus—Museum Transformations: Pathways to Community Engagement
KEYWORDS
Multisensory Experiences, People with Disabilities, Assistive Technology, Museums, Empowerment, Engagement
