Examples of assistive technologies applied in the museum sector
- Le Louvre (Paris; France): The Pavillon de l’Horloge where visually impaired visitors can learn about the history of the place, by means of hands-on devices allowing to understand how the Louvre’s architecture developed through the ages. The Islamic Art exhibition includes tactile devices designed especially for this target group. Cf. Visitors with visual impairments (louvre.fr) As for visitors with a hearing impairment, the Louvre proposes a specially designed audio guide on Nintendo 3DS™ XL, as well as hearing loops compatible with the audio guides. Mediation via French Sign Language is also available for this target group. Cf. Visitors with hearing impairments (louvre.fr) Regarding the visitors with cognitive impairments, the Louvre recommends special visiting routes: the medieval Louvre and the Khorsabad courtyard, together with sensory bags and sensory map. Visitors with developmental and learning disabilities (louvre.fr)
- Museo Archeologico Nacional – MAN (Madrid, Spain): Guided visits for persons with visual impairment “Museo en tus manos” with special stops at the tactile stations where visitors can touch the replicas of the original items in the exhibit, allowing them a tactile discovery of history. The MAN also offers guided visits in sign language “Las imprescindibles del MAN”. Cf Accessibility – | Ministerio de Cultura (man.es)
- Casa Batlló (Barcelona, Spain): is also an example as it has opened its doors to neurodiversity by including in its team of attendant persons with such peculiarities, empowering them, giving them a chance to integration. Cf. Committed to autism | Casa Batlló (casabatllo.es)
- The Berlin Global exhibition within the Humboldt Forum (Berlin, Germany) has the entire circuit marked with navigation walkways for the visually impaired.
- The Musée du Quai Branly (Paris, France) includes throughout its visiting circuit screens containing the translation into sign language for the hearing-impaired as well as explanations into simple language for persons with cognitive disorders.
- The application Blind MuseumTourer is a system for indoor interactive autonomous navigation for blind and visually impaired visitors in museums, particularly in the Tactual Museum of the Lighthouse (Kallithea, Greece). It is available for Android smartphones and tablets and consists of instructions in the form of voice message that allows the self-guided navigation inside the museum exhibition halls and ancillary spaces(Meliones; Sampson, 2018).
- In the context of the Erasmus+ project “United for those in Needs: Learn, Open, Care, Keep. The museum mediator as diversity integrator” (UNLOCK), the project leader, “Moldova” National Museum Complex of Iași (Iași, Romania), designed and installed in the Art Museum 3 installations for the visually impaired consisting each of a 3D molding of a painting, accompanied by the Braille description. Moreover, in the framework of the same project, an experimental device was designed to transform the music notes of melodies played by music boxes, orchestrions and symphonions exhibited in the museum, into vibrations that can be felt by placing the palm on the designated area of the device in the “Stefan Procopiu” Science and Technique Museum
In the context of the Erasmus+ project “A.A.C.cessible Culture: museums for everyone developing the alternative augmentative communication tools”, “Moldova” National Museum Complex of Iași, Romania, developed for its four museums in the Palace of Culture a visiting guide using the AAC symbols, and produced dedicated mediation tools for the Art Museum and for Moldavia’s History Museum.