Inclusive Learning through Technology in Art Museums and Classrooms #NAEA14

Rebecca McGinnis, Museum Educator, Access and Community Programs, The Metropolitan Museum of Art @RebeccaMcGNYC

Yue-Ting Siu, Teacher of Students with Visual Impairments (TVI), UC Berkeley & San Francisco State University @TVI_ting

Steven Landau, President, Touch Graphics, Inc. @TouchGraphicsUS

Multimedia #a11y ●  Accessibility Usability! ●  Usability = User Experience

Focus on the learner ●  Universal learning environments ●  Multimodalities GOAL: Inclusive spaces for independent and equal participation

@TVI_ting

Tools Visual access: Magnification, Contrast, Font, Desktop Tactile representation: Tactile graphics, 3D printing

●  Braille Authority of North America (BANA) - Guidelines & Standards for Tactile Graphics http://brailleauthority.org/tg/index.html

●  3D printing for Accessible Materials in Schools http://bit.ly/3dprinting4accessiblematerials

Image and video description (alt text): ●  Image description guidelines

http://ncam.wgbh.org/experience_learn/educational_media/stemdx/guidelines

●  Video description guidelines http://bit.ly/descriptiontutorials

@TVI_ting

YouDescribe.org

@TVI_ting

http://bit.ly/youdescribetutorial

The Met + Parsons Museums, Accessibility, Technology Collab Workshop

@RebeccaMcGNYC

The Met + Parsons Museum Accessibility Collab Workshop

●  Collaboration ●  Model for design education - awareness-raising, UD ●  Share process and prototypes ●  Some results and next steps

@RebeccaMcGNYC

The Met + Parsons Museum Accessibility Collab: Advisors

@RebeccaMcGNYC

The Met + Parsons Museum Accessibility Collab: Technology Experts

@RebeccaMcGNYC

Eye Tracking Project

@RebeccaMcGNYC

Website Group

@RebeccaMcGNYC

Wayfinding App

@RebeccaMcGNYC

Raised Painting

@RebeccaMcGNYC

Met + Parsons Expo

@RebeccaMcGNYC

@RebeccaMcGNYC

Final thoughts...

●  None of the students had heard of Universal Design before the class ●  This collaboration between Education and Digital Media departments has raised awareness and interest in accessibility issues in Digital Media ●  3 former students now intern in MediaLab ●  Stronger connections with advisors and experts, ongoing relationship between students and museum - community

@RebeccaMcGNYC

Case study San Diego Museum of Art’s Audio-tactile exhibit panel based on Sanchez Cotan’s masterpiece, “Quince, Cabbage, Melon and Cucumber”, painted in Toledo, Spain in 1602.

@TouchGraphicsUS

SDMA has: - Committed to improving access to their collections for visitors with disabilities. - Commissioned TouchGraphics to produce a number of tactile projects to help vision impaired visitors.

Main entrance, San Diego Museum of Art

@TouchGraphicsUS

The exhibit panel includes a bas relief version of the original painting. This was created using hand-sculpted forms for each fruit (left image).

The forms were pressed into printed vinyl sheet to create the tactile surface (right image).

@TouchGraphicsUS

The resulting touchable surface combines visual clarity with tactile shapes and textures. Visitors can use vision, touch and listening or any combination of these, as they explore the

image. @TouchGraphicsUS

Spoken descriptions of the overall work of art and of each element of the picture were written by curators at the museum. All content was loaded into an online spreadsheet for easy collaboration, and voice recordings were produced and saved as digital sound files.

@TouchGraphicsUS

The exhibit is intended for use by all visitors to the museum. While audio-tactile interactivity makes the exhibit accessible to blind or low vision visitors, it is also fun for children who love to touch and interact. This is the main goal of universal design, and it is the key

to convincing organizations to add access features.

@TouchGraphicsUS

For more information, please contact us! Rebecca McGinnis…….rebecca.mcginnis@metmuseum.org

Yue-Ting (Ting) Siu…....ysiu@mail.sfsu.edu Steven Landau……..sl@touchgraphics.com