Museo&Web
Planning Kit for a Quality Site for Small and Medium Sized Museums
Experiment in accessibility for the visually impaired
In order to allow the visually impaired to recognise the object of an image, a system combining a brief description a vectoral image of the object displayed in pdf format was invented. The image follows the profile of the figure and is deliberately re-worked to allow adequate tactile understanding. The image is furthermore accompanied by a brief text description in black for the visually impaired and in Braille for the blind. Images so made can be saved and printed by the visually impaired user, and then reproduced in the nearest centre of an association for the blind (in Italy l'Unione Ialiana Ciechi) with a relief print system using “fusore”.
This experiment was realised on the Web Site of the National Parks in Italy with the rock face incisions on the Valcamonica, together with the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Lombardia and the l'Istituto dei Ciechi di Milano. The site is part of the experimental study in the Handbook for Quality in Cultural Web Sites.