The Hardest Part: A I have had difficulty in wrenching my head out of the theory and the research to just do. There are so many rabbit holes to peer into -- which I do not think is all bad. The Hardest Part: B I am having trouble connecting with people who are blind. I have been reaching out to groups left and right, but understandably so, it's been difficult. I imagine that many people who are blind receive numerous calls or emails from students wanting to involve them in a project, and I am sure this is tiresome to say the least. I hope, however, that my project is one that truly makes people think about human perception, the meaning of experience, story, and culture. Plus, I think that involvement will be interesting and fun for participants, hell, it might even make a real difference. I have started to make some progress through Lighthouse for the Blind in SF and possibly with a student group, so fingers crossed.
Post midterm review I have taken the critiques to heart and I am trying to write a manifesto of sorts which I hope will keep me focussed. Here is the working document.
When sighted visitors go to a museum they have many options in terms of how they shape their experience (fast, slow, deep, shallow, permanent collection, special show). Blind museum visitors, however, have far fewer options. Most museums offer special accessibility tours once a month, but these tours often fill up weeks in advance and are scheduled during the work day. My hypothesis is that these top down experiences, while valuable, do not meet the needs of most blind visitors. I am exploring ways improve the museum experience for blind or low vision visitors by pushing on the content and creating multi-faceted object stories that go beyond what is expected in order to create rich experiences through our non-visual senses.
I am doing this because I think museums are unique and special and because I think they should be designed for everyone who is interested. (And on a tangent, I think they are in danger of becoming more known for their Thursday evening parties than for their collections if they are not willing to change and embrace technology). The theories of universal design tell us that when you improve a design for the edge users, the experience will improve for all users. When I first learned about universal design I was struck by the story of the OXO brand. I know, I know, the OXO example is tired and overused, but it resonates with me. I have rheumatoid arthritis, and I can assure you that there are many “simple” actions that are nearly impossible for me to perform. I constantly make adaptations to accommodate limited mobility in my wrists and for the most part things are manageable. But regardless of how many times I have heard the OXO story in my years as a design student, I love it. It is pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good that design can be used to make such a difference in our lives. I have experience adapting products to fit my own unique needs, and I enjoy learning about the myriad of ways that other people adapt products or situations to fit their unique needs. We are so accustomed to products and experiences that are not designed to meet our needs that we go through the modification without any thought to design as a practice.
My specific interest in museum visitors who are blind was sparked by a slender, gem of a book I found in one of the libraries at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The book, Finding the way by ear, hand and foot, was written by the Danish Design Center and describes the development process of creating better tools and surroundings for persons who are blind or partially sighted. As the book's back flap says, “tools developed for a particular user group become better tools, not just for those users, but for everybody.” From there, Katie Shelly and I started to think about what the experience would be for blind visitors at the Cooper-Hewitt when it opens in October 2014. We started by doing a competitive survey of the museum experiences for blind people at a number of different museums in New York City....
to be continued.
I end this post with a really nice screenshot of Antarctica via Google Street View.
