[Artbeyondsightmuseums] Art of apps to help blind in galleries. antiquities

[Lisa Yayla]

Blind students get to touch antiquities at Penn Museum

Elizabeth Messaros beamed as she ran her hands over Egyptian relics 
thousands of years old at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of 
Archaeology and Anthropology.

The sightless teen, a student at the Overbrook School for the Blind, had 
a similar experience once at an art museum - but had to wear gloves.
http://articles.philly.com/2012-10-23/news/34655145_1_blind-students-blind-children-touch-tour


  Art of apps to help blind in galleries

GROUNDBREAKING iPad application to enable partially sighted or blind 
people to enjoy art exhibitions and displays has been shortlisted for an 
award.

Students from the Visually Impaired Centre at The Charles Dickens 
School, Broadstairs helped develop the app with the University of Kent 
at Canterbury.
.... The iPad programme gives vivid descriptions of each picture in the 
gallery and importantly it adds sounds like the sea or the wind or 
birdsong to conjure up the atmosphere of the work."

http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Art-apps-help-blind-galleries/story-17124713-detail/story.html


iPad App for Visually Impaired Visitors to Turner Contemporary
Young people from the Visual Impairment unit at the Charles Dickens 
School, Broadstairs, worked with final year Multimedia Technology and 
Design (MTD) students from the School of Engineering and Digital Arts to 
create an interactive iPad app for use by blind and visually impaired 
visitors alongside Turner Contemporary's first major Turner exhibition, 
'Turner and the Elements'. At the start of the project, students and 
teachers alike found it hard to imagine how a blind person might use an 
interactive touchscreen device, let alone enjoy an exhibition made up 
entirely of paintings

http://www-chronos.eda.kent.ac.uk/research/theme_project.aspx?pid=180


  Turner and the Elements

This app was designed for Turner Contemporary art gallery. It contains 
the selection of artworks from "Turner and the Elements" exhibition 
which ran at Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate, UK from 28 January 
2012 to 13 May 2012. The app was developed by students from the 
University of Kent in cooperation with Visually Impaired unit from 
Charles Dickens School, Broadstairs. The app is designed with the 
visually impaired and blind users in mind but will be suitable for 
anyone who wants to check some of the Britain's most loved artist's 
paintings, find out some background information about them and listen to 
the soundscapes representing the artworks.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/turner-and-the-elements/id547941112?mt=8

Turner and the Elements iPad app


          The app was designed and developed as a prototype for Turner
          Contemporary art gallery. The main idea of the project was to
          make the art more appealing and accessible to the visually
          impaired and blind visitors. We worked closely with visually
          impaired children who had no previous experience in using
          touch screen devices. Although iOS has some great
          accessibility features for the blind, it is not easy to learn
          and we wanted to create something very simple that could be
          quickly picked up by anyone without previous touch-screen
          experience. The app contains the selection of artworks from
          "Turner and the Elements" exhibition which ran at Turner
          Contemporary gallery in Margate, UK from 28 January 2012 to 13
          May 2012. The artworks are described for the visually impaired
          and contain some sound effects and music by Arms and Sleepers.


          Although the app is designed with the visually impaired and
          blind users in mind, we built a separate menu and navigation
          for the sighted users so anyone can check out some of
          Britain's most loved painter's artworks and find out a bit
          more about them.


http://kamatom.com/turnerapp/