[Artbeyondsightmuseums] Touch Tour Development

[Barry Ginley]

Dear Elin

Many thanks for your email, I will try and give some guidance.

I am the Equality and Access Officer at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and we have been providing accessible services to visually impaired visitors for many years. In answer to your questions:

*         Does anyone have experience writing visual descriptions of objects? Or do most museums contract this out?

BG: at the V&A we sometimes use an external organisation who specialise in audio description, however I do prefer to use one of our own guides as she has years of delivering talks at the museum as well as previously working at a school for visually impaired children. I have found that external organisations often provide a detached description and can get caught up with describing the object and miss the visitors requirements. 

We have found from focus groups that people will not listen to a description for more than 2min 30sec, so when hiring someone to describe the objects please do not let them create a script which is too long.
 
*         Do any other museums offer a self-guided touch tour? If so, what are some of the challenges or strengths you have encountered?

BG: We do offer a self guided tour which can be useful for visitors.

Challenges 
Assisting visitors to find the object, we have over 7 miles of galleries on many different levels. Giving directions over such a large venue is extremely problematic as if you give stride lengths this will differ between person to person. On occasions, visual clues have been given which do benefit some visitors, however you must consider who the audios are being developed for. We decided not to give any direction apart from providing information on room locations.

Strengths
Providing audio is accessible to a greater range of audience. Although the descriptions are useful for visually impaired people, a good description will guide a sighted visitor to key points on an object, something they may otherwise miss.

*         How do you advertise your programs and what community relationships have you found successful?

BG: We advertise via mailing lists we have built up over 30 years of offering touch tours. We offer the information in braille, large print and via email.

We also work with societies for the blind and advertise in relevant media including the disability press. 

I hope this information helps, please do come back to me with any further questions.

You may also like to contact two people at  the Smithsonian,

Beth Ziebarth, ziebarth at op.si.edu
Nancy Proctor, nproctor at si.edu 

Best wishes

Barry



>>> "Meliska, Elin" <MeliskaE at si.edu> 24/03/2014 16:05 >>>
Hello,

My name is Elin Meliska and I am developing a self-guided touch tour for blind and low vision visitors at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum. I'm totally new at this and was hoping some seasoned pros could offer some help.


*         Does anyone have experience writing visual descriptions of objects? Or do most museums contract this out?

*         Do any other museums offer a self-guided touch tour? If so, what are some of the challenges or strengths you have encountered?

*         How do you advertise your programs and what community relationships have you found successful?

Thank you so much for your help. Any and all advice is much appreciated!

Elin

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