Investigating Technologies to Enrich Museum Audio Description for Enhancing Accessibility

Abstract

Museums are typically dominated by visual experiences. This means that people who are blind or partially sighted (BPS) tend to be excluded from several aspects of the visitor experience, including emotional engagement. The purpose of this practice-led research project is to explore ways in which smart software-enabled technologies could be used to enrich audio description (AD) and to enhance accessibility and visitor experience for BPS visitors. Therefore, my 4-year research project, funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral training programme, investigates, develops and tests innovative access options for BPS visitors, using new technologies within diverse museum environments. Working with Titanic Belfast and Royal National Institute of Blind People in Northern Ireland, I pioneer three approaches that combine a commitment to low-cost accessibility solutions and emotionally engaged visitor experience and try to answer the following research questions:

1. (i)  How can I evaluate the complex impact of museum AD on BPS visitor experience and, in particular, how can I evaluate their emotional responses?

2. (ii)  How, and to what extent, can a storytelling approach, combined with the concept of “journey”, enhance museum accessibility and visitor experience for visitors with various sight loss conditions?

3. (iii)  How, and to what extent, can new technologies and smart maps enable access to these journey stories and provide emotionally engaging visitor experiences for BPS visitors?

4. (iv)  How easy can it be made for museums to produce their own interactive voice-driven audio descriptive guide to enrich visitor experience for BPS visitors?

The first question is addressed mainly in Chapter One. I present a study of BPS visitor experience in Titanic Belfast, and applies for the first time existing models of visitor experience in the context of accessibility. The study reveals that the complex nature of visitors’ emotional responses and visitor experience in the live museum environment.

The second and third questions are addressed in Chapter Two. I develop and evaluate a new approach to accessibility which uses a multisensory smart map to present a journey-based story of Titanic’s maiden voyage. The smart map uses readily available materials and affordable technologies, such as Raspberry-Pi. It also uses software-controlled multi-function buttons to enable BPS users to autonomously select the desired AD and level of detail. The results of a reception study show that the approach enabled BPS participants to experience significant emotional engagement with museum resources in Titanic Belfast.

The fourth question is addressed primarily in Chapters Three and Four. I propose a major extension to the standard passive audio descriptive device by developing an interactive voice-driven museum audio descriptive guide for Titanic Belfast (TBot), with built-in navigation instructions and a free format Question and Answer facility. This TBot uses text-to-speech technology, to generate AD from a textual knowledge base; speech recognition for input, to voice-activate the device; and a design platform that easily enables museum staff to produce, update and customise the audio descriptive guide. Altogether, the project contributes several methods to enrich AD for enhancing museum accessibility and visitor experience for BPS visitors both theoretically and practically.