A project involving academics at Royal Holloway and led by the University of Westminster, has been shortlisted for the Museums + Heritage Award which celebrates the very best of museums, galleries, and cultural and heritage visitor attractions.
The Workshop for Inclusive Co-created Audio Description (W-ICAD) provides museums with a tool where they can produce audio description based on co-created discussions between blind, partially blind and sighted co-creators.
It has been shortlisted for the Sector Impact Award for ‘enhancing museum equity, diversity and inclusion through audio interpretation’ and was piloted at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
Professor Hannah Thompson and her PhD student Joseph Rizzo-Naudi, from the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Royal Holloway, both of whom are partially-blind, are part of the W-ICAD project. Professor Thompson also leads The Sensational Museum project, alongside working with W-ICAD.
Professor Hannah Thompson said: “Museums can be very sight-dependent places. Visitors move around in silence looking at objects or artworks, often behind glass. This ‘look and learn’ approach works for some people, but others, like me, want to access and process information in ways not reliant on what we can or cannot see.
“So, a few years ago, I came across some fascinating research that showed how audio descriptions designed for blind people give sighted people a more memorable and enjoyable museum experience. This made me wonder what would happen if we redesigned museums so that the additional services provided for disabled visitors were at the heart of how museums work for everyone.
“What if we collected all the wonderful examples of inventive access programming across the UK and used them to rethink the way museums speak to all our senses? And here we are – making this happen.”
Joseph Rizzo Naudi, a PhD student working with Professor Thompson on the W-ICAD project, added: “What’s great about W-ICAD is that it puts into practice what artists and thinkers have been getting excited about for centuries: working with blindness rather than against it promotes creativity and helps us engage meaningfully with what’s around us.
“Blindness also happens to be a great cure for passive consumption. W-ICAD has revolutionised how I engage with exhibitions, and I hope more and more institutions wake up to the exceptional potential of tools like this to help make their spaces more meaningful for everyone.”
The Museums + Heritage Awards are open to all museums, galleries, archives, and cultural and heritage organisations, both digital and in-person. Winners will be announced on 15 May in London. Both the W-ICAD project and the Sensational Museum are funded by grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
