Access to museums for blind and visually impaired people through 3D technology Erasmus Project

Project Title

Access to museums for blind and visually impaired people through 3D technology

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2014

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Disabilities – special needs; Research and innovation

Project Summary

Museums constitute an essential part of the European cultural landscape serving as a key player in preserving cultural heritage on the one hand, and as platforms for contemporary forms of expression on the other. They showcase cultural evolution spanning over thousands of years, covering several epochs, beginning with archaeological exhibits up to modern art. However, museums primarily address the visual senses and blind and visually impaired people, therefore, are excluded from a wide range of services offered by traditional museums, including the museums’ role as platform where informal learning takes place. But times are changing and innovative 3D technologies and multi-sensory methods offer solutions for blind and visually impaired people, by enabling them to get in touch with exhibits and to participate in educational programs offered by museums. A small number of museums in Europe offer access to blind and visually impaired people through the use of 3D technology. Some museums started setting-up such projects in the recent years, but faced budgetary, technical and conceptual obstacles that needed to be overcome. However, museums which managed to complete such projects, received extremely positive feedback from blind and visually impaired people.
The project AMBAVis aimed to be a driving force for the development and the spreading of such 3D practices in museums by providing comprehensive information and research on that issue. The project, therefore, has acted on existing approaches and refined technical solutions, in order to allow an understanding of how to improve them and to generate more affordable tactile models for museums in the future. Within the project tactile models, 3D objects and multi-sensory methods have been developed and tested. Feedback from blind and visually impaired people was a crucial part in this process in order to get a better insight in the usability of the different technologies and to increase accessibility to museums and their educational programs for blind and visually impaired people. Furthermore, examples of good practice have been compiled as well as key elements identified that are essential for a successful implementation of projects in this context.
As improving access to museums for blind and visually impaired people is a multi-faceted issue, a comprehensive approach was chosen to also address the economic and legal aspects. Therefore, the project was accompanied by an analysis facing the economic impact and the respective legal framework of the emerging use of 3D technology and applications in museums. The economic impact of the use of 3D technologies and tactile models in museums has been measured in order to show, that there is a broader value added in terms of gross value added and employment arising in the EU-28. Finally, questions concerning copyright issues occurring in the context of tactile models created for blind and visually impaired visitors in museums have been analyzed and clarified, as they have a high practical relevance when implementing such projects.
The project’s results have been shared with other stakeholders and the public through extensive dissemination activities in various fields, e.g. exhibiting the models developed in public events, presenting the results at conferences, publishing articles in mass media as well as specific professional journals, informing on proceedings and results on the project website www.ambavis.eu, releasing press releases and conducting a press conference and a final workshop for the interested public at the end of the project. Moreover, another European project in this context (ARCHES – Accessible Resources for Cultural Heritage Ecosystems, http://arches-project.eu/) has emerged out of the project’s activities that is based on ideas created within and continuing the work of AMBAVis.
The findings provide museums, stakeholders and decision makers with a better understanding of the issue and allow for better and more cost-efficient implementation of 3D technology in museums. Furthermore, haptic results in the form of tactile models have been produced which will stay publicly accessible in the partner museums also after the official end of AMBAVis. Although the project aimed at blind and visually impaired people, the use of 3D objects and multi-sensory-opportunities has turned out to be very useful for pupils in educational facilities or in old people’s homes in the future too.
The strategic partnership consisted of 7 partner organizations from Austria, Slovakia, Germany and Great Britain. The project partners were museums, an institute for economic and legal research, a center for application oriented research in the area of Visual Computing, a NGO in the field of audio description for blind and visually impaired people, and national blind unions.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 246788,72 Eur

Project Coordinator

Economica Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung & Country: AT

Project Partners

• THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
• Austrian Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted
• Österreichische Galerie Belvedere
• Deutscher Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverband e. V.
• VRVIS ZENTRUM FUR VIRTUAL REALITY UND VISUALISIERUNG FORSCHUNGS-GMBH
• Trnka, n. o.