Abstract
The aim of this paper is to present an overview of the preliminary findings in an ongoing study conducted in MuseIT – a Horizon Europe project (Oct. 2022 – Sept. 2025) – proposing technologies facilitating and widening access to cultural assets in an ‘inclusive way’. The paper reports the results of a literature review and the first ideation workshop conducted in January 2023. The workshop participants represented cultural institutions and their users, and/or consumers and producers of cultural assets, with a focus on people with disabilities. The findings show that the digital environment is greatly appreciated by participants with disabilities for both communication with others and for self-expression. Cultural institutions are aware of the variety of needs, including the need for collaborative development of services accessible to all. However, there is a perception gap between the two. To address these, there is a need to involve people with disabilities – who are experts on such needs based on lived experiences – in the design of tools and services aimed at meeting their needs. Furthermore, there is a need for improved understanding of disability and diversity of needs, in projects involved in developing technological systems to facilitate and broaden accessibility.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank all the workshop participants who generously shared their lived experiences with us. Thanks also to our colleagues, the workshop moderators Maud Ntonga, Corinne Szteinsznaider, Nigel Osborne and Patricia Alessandrini and colleagues involved in note taking, Andrea Scharnhorst, Moa Johansson, Vyacheslav Tykhonov and Sándor Darányi, and all the other members of the MuseIt project who contributed to and or were involved with the organisations of the workshop. Gratitudes are also due to IRCAM for hosting us for this event. Both authors gratefully acknowledge the grant from EU for the project MuseIT (Grant agreement 101061441). Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only, for which neither the colleagues mentioned, European Union or the MuseIT project can be held responsible.
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Maceviciute, E., Olson, N. (2023). Real Experienced Needs for Accessible and Inclusive Cultural Heritage - First Results in MuseIT. In: Alonso, O., Cousijn, H., Silvello, G., Marrero, M., Teixeira Lopes, C., Marchesin, S. (eds) Linking Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries. TPDL 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14241. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43849-3_32
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