Colleges & Communities Working Towards Interpretation for Blind and Low-Vision Audiences

When I had my first blind student in a Museum Studies class, I admit it threw me. Most of my own conception of museums, not to mention my slides, focused on the visual. I learned to pause and describe each one (and asked students to do the same). The exercise slowed everything down, and made us all look closer, and think more, about how visual culture is presented and interpreted. One slide, of a cabinet of curiosity, took over the class, as students named the things in the room, described their locations, and tried to explain the humor and oddness of the arrangement. On field trips, either myself or another student would guide him around museums and historic sites. It forced us all to look closely at individual objects and their place in the larger frame of the museum. It forced us to put into words things that curators take for granted.

As Director of Public History at Flagler College, I oversee our internship program and engage my students in Community-Integrative Education. I first worked on interpretation for the blind with the St. Augustine Art Association’s TOUCH St. Augustine project. TOUCH stands for Tactile Orientation for Understanding Creativity and History, and the project is supported by the Art Education for the Blind’s Touch Beyond Sight. The association hosts a Tactile Art Exhibit every year, initiated a Braille Trail of public sculpture, and recently created an art garden with hands-on sculpture, braille markers, and engagement of multiple senses. (Descriptions can be found here.)

St. Augustine is home to the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind, one of the largest schools of its kind in the country. It is also home to dozens of historic sites, museums, and tours that do little to serve this population. In addition to a significant underserved blind population, the TOUCH program hoped to serve our elderly, many of whom have declining vision. Akin to the national movement, an art association is leading the way in our town. My goal is to expand the techniques developed for that field to historical places.

My students—both sighted and blind—have worked with the project establishing a mutually-beneficial relationship. We reviewed early drafts of audio descriptions of public statues and wrote historical information to accompany each. Through internships and student projects, I remained connected to the project, and through an intern saw the implementation of a docent program this past Fall that explains the purpose of the braille markers to visitors. My students have given feedback and support to the program, while the project has deepened my students’ and my own understanding of this often-overlooked issue. A recent graduate went on to write her MA thesis on touch tours in science museums.

What I’ve learned is that blind and low-vision audiences cannot be served by a brief verbal description by an untrained guide; and it is inaccurate to think they do not need visual description. Audio descriptions and tactile experiences benefit a wide audience, not only those with limited vision. They point out detail and encourage closer inspection. A visual description often makes a sighted person look closer and see more detail. Slowing down is often a good thing—and the trend of “slow history” can learn much from interpretation for the visually-impaired.

Key Questions:

  • How can we implement and expand art museum techniques for history museums and historic sites?
  • How can we train guides in effective audio description?
  • What can be done to implement more senses?
  • How can interpretation for blind and low-vision audiences expand the experience for every visitor?
  • How can communities in areas with this population assist organizations to implement interpretation and programming?
  • How can college/universities work with blind students and their communities to assist this process? What supports are needed?

~ Kelly Enright, PhD, Director of Public History, Flagler College

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Discussion

6 comments
  1. Brian Mast says:

    Kelly, there are two of your questions I would like to discuss.

    1.) How can we implement and expand art museum techniques for history museums and historic sites?

    This question can only be answered based on what is the goal of the art museum. A few of the art institutions I have visited here in Alabama and other states are more interested in having artifacts behind glass rather than engaging an audience. (Same can be said for history museums visited as well.) Some have added a “children’s section” which is more fun/educational than the galleries. With that said, the institutions you are working with are more advanced in engaging audiences than the ones mentioned above. Something we have seen in many of these case studies has been all audiences are benefiting from the additional engagement techniques used to bring in a wider audience to our institutions. Maybe a way to advocate for incorporating these tactics at every museum.

    2.) Engaging with senses.

    We NEED to engage with as many senses as possible. In doing living history for years, the best programs I have done or attended involve the use of smell and/or taste as part of the program. Smell is something we need to incorporate more into our work. Nothing evokes a more powerful memory or reaction than a “bad” or “good” smell. Taste is a little more difficult due to allergies, but it allows for a powerful interpretive moment to happen. It was mentioned other places as well, but with 3D printer technology becoming increasingly inexpensive, touch should be incorporated more and more into programs in order to provide that extra area of engagement. There are a few different programs out there done by corporations who make this devices which help pay for the technology as well.

    1. John Little says:

      Brian, have you visited the Imperial War Museum in London? They have a WWI trench experience, which has a very distinct smell. I can’t find an online reference to it, but I recall that when it first opened and WWI veterans toured it, they identified the smell as incredibly accurate and very immersive. I think some had to be escorted out, because the odor was so vividly tied to their memories of the war.

  2. Drew Robarge says:

    Would it be worthwhile to look at a digital platform to distribute content? I think with the rise of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) we might be able to create individualized topics that will help provide training to many people for a small fee. This will present an issue of having older population perhaps unfamiliar with the MOOC system, but there seems to be the common issue is that there’s too few experts and too many people who need this information so what’s the best way to get this information out without taxing the experts as well as not depriving them of their income?

  3. John Little says:

    My first thought on reading your case study was about the only blind student I know at my institution. She has not taken my classes, but I still tried to incorporate multisensory experiences into my lectures. I have slides and use videos with captions, but I also added a tactile experience—fabric made using preindustrial techniques versus early industrial and modern. Although this is not nearly enough, it nevertheless has given students a better understanding of history.

    In many of the case studies, one of our common themes is training and outreach. I think you raise very good questions about working how we train guides and engage schools and communities. How do we slow down our interpretations and add to the experience so that we don’t remove information in order to fit within certain time limits? How can we engage with K-12 schools and other organizations that are outside of the college/university community?

  4. Kelly Enright says:

    This is a great idea, Drew. Or, with the income issue, a webinar or online course for a fee through an organization. I recently had my students take the NPS Interpretation online course on Epply (Institute for Parks and Public Lands, Indiana University). Initially, I was excited the same program that trains rangers was available for free, but when my students came back to class, I found they still needed to see the process of demonstrated and do exercises to put what they learned into practice. Open Course ware could be a good starting point, though.

  5. Janice Klein says:

    While audio description is the best way for visitors who are blind or visually impaired to experience museum exhibits, there are other relatively simple and inexpensive things that all museums can do to improve access for these visitors. It is not necessary to create new content, but only to make your existing content available through media (particularly iPhone apps) already in use by visitors who are visually impaired or blind. For more information see the article on the AASLH Small Museum Community blog on this topic:
    http://blogs.aaslh.org/increasing-accessibility-for-visitors-who-are-visually-impaired-simple-solutions-for-small-museums/

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