Accessible Technologies in MuseumsThanks to an agreement between the FAD and BCD, two pioneer institutions in promoting design in Catalonia, the Barcelona Design Festival has been born. This is a large event which aims to make Barcelona the international capital of design. This initiative is supported by Barcelona City Council as well as several other institutions and private companies that support design as a form of innovation.
The Barcelona Design Festival has two central events: FADfest which will kickstart the festival from 28 June to 14 July, and Barcelona Design Week which will be the closing event taking place from 17 to 21 October. Both of these events will be linked together over the intervening months by a number of activities, exhibitions and tours so that participants can enjoy design in Barcelona.
One of the most innovative activities of the Barcelona Design Festival is the BCN Design Tour and its new application for smartphones. The bcndesigntour application is available for iPhone, Android and BlackBerry. There is also a website: www.bcd.es/es/rutadisseny.asp. Both the application and the website can be used to look up the nearby points of interest so that users can get to know them, find out how to get there and share them on social networks.
Shops, showrooms, bars, restaurants, hotels, local fashion, specialised book shops, galleries, schools, businesses and a number of other architectural elements make up a list of more than 250 points of interest which help those taking part understand why Barcelona is an international capital of design. Many of the points of interest along the route display a vinyl sign at the entrance showing that they are part of the Barcelona Design Festival.
The application can be downloaded here.
Source: BCD
The well-known Spanish foundation ONCE and Parques Nacionales will work together in order to reduce architectural and communication barriers. / Funcación Lázaro Galdiano promotes disabled access to the arts. / Social networks don’t pass the test of e-accessibility.
Foundation ONCE has been in the news during the last weeks because of its committed work of detecting social needs in terms of accessibility. Specifically, the foundation has promoted a real action on three core areas of social life: human contact with the environment, the enjoyment of art and culture and social interaction over the Internet. Three areas in which further work to achieve full integration of persons with disabilities.
In recent days, ONCE has made partakers of its renowned commitment to the next Spanish entities: Parques Nacionales and Fundación Lázaro Galdiano. The first, have signed a partnership agreement to promote and facilitate access to people with disabilities to parks and, the second, have signed a similar agreement in order to this persons can enjoy visual arts like someone else.
Both agreements include also the implementation of more accessible design of websites and other communication documents. It is important because one of the great challenges of accessibility is the correct adaptation of ICT to the specific needs of people with disabilities. Fundacion ONCE has shown that so popular tools like social networks are not yet sufficiently adapted in Spain. The report presented by ONCE on Monday 26 October in Madrid said that social networks don’t past the test of e-accessibility. Of the eight plataform tested, LinkedIn and Flickr are the networks with more point, although it means only 3 stars out of five.
Sources: Solidaridad Digital / Europa Press / Discapnet
It has taken 24 centuries, but thanks to the work of archeologists, academics, historians and the arrival of the internet, the Dead Sea Scrolls are one click away for everyone around the world.
Since 26 September, just before Jewish New Year, the collection of the Dead Sea Scrolls has been available online. This is thanks to a project of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem and the technological support of Google.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, which were written between the 3rd and 1st century BC, include the oldest biblical scrolls in existence. In the year 68 BC, they were hidden in eleven caves in the Judaean Desert on the shores of the Dead Sea in order to protect them against the threat of the incoming Roman army. They were not discovered until 1947, when a Bedouin shephard threw a stone into a cave and realised that there was something inside. Since 1965, the scrolls have been on display in the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem. Among other subjects, the scrolls offer a critique of life and religion in ancient Jerusalem, including the birth of Christianity.
Source: Art Info
On 27 September, the Spanish National Centre for Technology Access (CENTAC) presented the document called ‘Guía sobre normalización en la Accesibilidad de las TIC’, a guide on accessibility standardization in ICT. The act took place at the headquarters of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade (Spain). The Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Information Society, Juan Junquera, remarked the importance of the fight against the digital divide.
The purpose of this guide is to provide businesses, governments, research centers, universities and users of a tool that contributes to the widespread use and knowledge of rules and standards for accessibility of ICT. Its first aim is bridge the digital divide. It also seeks to boost strategic standardization efforts in accessibility technologies of the Information Society.
Accord to this goal, the guide identifies and describes the technical standards in the world on e-accessibility, according to the next criteria: the phase of the production cycle, the ICT feature or the type of target audience to which directs. It also provides a summary of existing legislation on e-accessibility.
The publication is the volume 2 of a general collection that cover the folllowing topics: Accessibility, Technology and Society. It has been prepared by the professor in the department’s Intelligence of the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Informática of the Univeridad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Alejandro Rodríguez Ascaso, and the professor of the department of Lenguajes y Sistemas Informáticos e Ingeniería de Software of the Facultad de Informática at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Loïc Martínez Normand.
Download the document ‘Guía sobre normalización en la Accesibilidad de las TIC’ - (Spanish)
Fuente: Europa Press / CENTAC
The Tourist Community of Andalusia (Comunidad Turística de Andalucía) has taken the initiative to publish a database of accessible hotels, those which are adapted to disable people. All tourists interested in the Spanish region will plan their trip easier from now on: the new initiative contributes to eliminate all barriers, including the informative ones.
On September 13, the Minister of Tourism, Trade and Sport of Andalusia, Luciano Alonso, said that this tool will reveal the degree of compliance and implementation of the accessibility measures in Andalusia hotels.
In short, the measure consists in distribution of self-assessment questionnaires aimed to hotels. The answers to these questionnaires will form a database of accessible hotels. The project is calling for social responsibility in the service sector.
Tourist Community of Andalusia develops this analysis in collaboration with the Provincial Federation of Associations of People with Physical Disabilities (in Spanish, Feijidif: ‘Federación Provincial de Asociaciones de personas con discapacidad física’) of Jaen. Fejidif is an NGO founded in 1987 to unite the efforts of the movement of people with physical disabilities in the province. Currently brings together 21 associations.
Data from Eurostat estimated at eight million tourists who have some kind of disability in Europe, which represents an important number for the tourist in Andalusia region.
Source: Comunidad Turística de Andalucía / Sur.es
La Muralla de Avila opened last Friday, September 16, an audio guide system created specifically for this monument and which is pioneer nationally.
This is a new tourist information channel that combines sound and image to offer their content in an oral, written and in sign language, so it is offered as a perfect partner for people with disabilities.
The mayor of Ávila, Miguel Ángel García Nieto, said that this audio guide system “represents another step in our goal to make the city more accessible, everyone,” and that “this new tourism resources is not a guide to use but more technically advanced, “and that the” written or audio information “that may offer other similar systems” incorporates visual information through a sign language interpreter. ”
The headsets, which are given to all those who climb the Wall, have an anti-reflective 3.5-inch screen that offers users the tourist information in sign language (Spanish version and also in international, this case with subtitles), plus related helmets through which you can hear the speech in seven languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Japanese. To this is added a discourse specially designed for younger visitors, made with a language that children get assimilated with the historical information amenity offered.
The design of electronic devices, of which 350 units will be distributed among the three access points to the Wall, was defined by the mayor as “simple and intuitive”, as they hardly have to use their few buttons and automatically as information is jumping the visitor passes through the milestones established for that purpose. Its light weight and ease of handling allowed to be used with relative ease by individuals with mobility or visual impairments.
Source: Diario de Ávila
Triposo is the new concept of travel guides. It has the best of the Internet, its universality, and the best of personal notebooks. Jon Tirsen and Douwe Osinga, two ex-Googlers, are the creators of this new mobile travel guide, which doesn’t want to just throw out the old model, it wants to do exactly what Google did for the world’s information: Aggregate relevant contents and make it the easily searchable.
Triposo is, in essence, an application for mobile devices from Apple and Android. This project currently have over fifty different free travel guides for Android covering all major destinations, thirty travel guides for iPhone and the same number of travel guides optimized for iPad. Also have a world guide: one app in which you can download all the travel guides you need.
The idea is to index all the free information about places and points of interest through seven information sources: World66, Wikitravel, Wikipedia, Open Street Maps, TouristEye, Dmoz, Chefmoz and Flickr. Then, Triposo extracts the most relevant, classifies and orders it in order to give the best to the user. In addition, information is completed with maps of the Open Stree Map project.
Since the widespread use of the Internet, the network became an excellent source for travel planning, providing an unimaginable number of guides and experiences from different users, but, now, Triposo does this work for you.
Sources:
- Triposo
- TechCrunch
- wwwhat’s new
This year, Solidarity Awards of Fundacion ONCE (in Castilla-La Mancha) have recognized the work of those who, through their efforts and commitment, contribute to building a more inclusive society. The Sephardic Museum is the first public museum that incorporated a touch tour, and this fact has deserved an award. In this century, a museum can being seen, ears, sense and touched.
The presentation of the disabled facilities in the Sephardic Museum took place on June 15, 2011. The challenge of accessibility is the full autonomy of people with disability in all imaginable places and contexts. Sephardic Museum is adapted to people with visual and earring disabilities mainly.
In addition, the mayor of Campo de Criptana (Ciudad Real), the coordinator in the City of Ciudad Real and the radio Onda Cero in Toledo have been awared. The ceremony will be held on October 5 at 19:00, in the former Casino (Ciudad Real).
View with the hands
Anyone can visit the Sephardic Museum with his hands. It contains a total of 19 rooms with models and some original copies. But the museum is actually different because of its support materials, like a general map of the museum made in relief; some pieces that can be touched, felt and weighed; graphics; text in Braille; text in big characters (of which benefit people with a mild visual disability); descriptive audio guide content; and so on.
Listening with the eyes
The museum also has added new resources for people with hearing impairment who use hearing aids or cochlear implants. The various devices installed converted the sound into magnetic waves and make easy the listening to the people who carry hearing aids or implants. Two remarkable resource are the “signoguías” (signoguides) and the “audioguías” (audioguides), that include subtitles and videos in sign language. In turn, the museum offers audio amplifiers that can connect to these devices by enabling a better quality of sound information.
Source:
- Fundación Orange (Orange Fundation)
Carmen Thyssen Museum (Malaga) opens its doors again to little adventurers wanting to explore new and old places through art and play. The name of the activity appeals to the imagination and creativity: `¡Un vistazo al Museo! Naturaleza inventada´ (‘A look at the museum! Nature invented ‘).
The protagonist of the twenty-first century generation, which are children between 6 and 12 years, are called to know the singularities of rural and urban environments of the nineteenth and twentieth century’s. Painting is the instrument that brings them closer to his ancestors
The activity `A look at the museum!´ is part of the initiative “Un nuevo museo en tu ciudad” (“A new museum in your town”). This one was programmed in May 2011 to publicize the Thyssen Collection in a dynamic way.
After the summer, during the return to school, this activity is considered a complement to the education of children. For those who have previously participated in this program, the museum offers a new route with new works and pictures to explore.
How we dress, how we live
Furthermore, Carmen Thyssen Museum offers the activity ‘What pints!’, aimed at young people between 13 and 18. After visiting the collection, participants will have the opportunity to make a short video about the meanings of how we dress in specific contexts.
Source: Carmen Thyssen Museum (Málaga)
Can you imagine being able to see an old film superimposed on the place where it was filmed? An interesting project enables viewing footage of historical films superimposed on stage someday cotton recorded, through Google Street View.
Currently the collection is not very large and is available in There and Then as a personal project of Keir Clarke, editor of Google Maps Mania.
One interesting experience that gives ideas for academic work, allowing mixing passion for film with historical and geographical curiosity.
On YouTube you can find many movies over 60 years, it is not difficult to find material for a work of this kind.
Where was filmed? Answering this question is now simple thanks to the Spanish project filmaps. There are many activities and ”tours” related to the places where movies were filmed, especially dedicated to recall some famous moviescenes. Filmaps wants to help people find the site quickly and easily, withcontent generated by users themselves.
Source: wwwhat’s new
Catalog of mobile technologies for museums
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