How Inclusive is Digital Culture? A Call for Data That Works for Everyone

At MuseIT, we believe that culture is a right—not a privilege—and that digital innovation must serve inclusion. Yet even the most advanced technologies will fall short if they are not built on the right data, grounded in lived experience, and guided by ethical frameworks. That is the central message of our second policy brief, now available for download.

Policy Brief 2: "Development of technologies enhancing accessibility and participation to culture for people with disabilities – a data-centered perspective" addresses a fundamental question:How can data be collected, managed, and used to ensure that digital cultural experiences are genuinely accessible to all?

Drawing from both a comprehensive literature review and direct feedback from our consortium’s technological partners, the brief highlights the critical role of data and metadata in shaping inclusive cultural technologies—from VR exhibits and haptic interfaces to AI tools and accessible digital music instruments.

Why This Matters: Bridging Culture, Disability, and Digital Innovation

Too often, people with disabilities are excluded not because of a lack of intention, but because technologies are developed using narrow data models and assumptions that don’t reflect the full spectrum of human diversity.

Inclusive design starts long before the user interface—it begins with inclusive data.

Through the MuseIT project, we are exploring how data can be used to:

• Enhance multisensory access to cultural heritage (e.g. through 3D, haptic, or audio data)

• Adapt digital environments to individual needs using physiological and gesture-based inputs

• Reflect diverse cultural contexts via socio-cultural and contextual metadata

• Enable meaningful interaction using affective computing and AI-powered personalization

The brief maps out the types of data that are most commonly used—and most needed—for accessibility, based on the experiences of MuseIT partners and broader academic research. It also identifies underutilised data sources, like national cultural repositories or user-generated content, and stresses the need for better access to structured, high-quality data.

What We Found: A System in Progress, But Not Yet Inclusive by Design

The policy brief sheds light on several systemic barriers that are preventing truly inclusive cultural innovation:

• Lack of policy recognition: Cultural participation is not explicitly recognised as a standalone right in most disability policies at the EU level.

• Metadata fragmentation: There is no common framework for accessibility-related metadata, limiting interoperability and reuse.

• Underdeveloped governance: Semantic, affective, and multimodal data need clearer governance structures to ensure ethical and inclusive use.

• Limited co-creation: People with disabilities are still not consistently involved in the design, testing, and evaluation of cultural technologies.

• Insecure preservation: Even when data is enhanced for accessibility, it is rarely stored and maintained for long-term reuse.

  
  

Our Call to Action: Building Cultural Technologies That Reflect Everyone’s Experience

We believe the policy changes we propose are not only feasible—they are urgent. This brief outlines five key policy gaps and provides actionable recommendations, such as:

• Integrating cultural participation into the European Disability Strategy

• Developing EU-wide accessibility-focused metadata standards

• Requiring user co-creation in EU-funded cultural tech initiatives

• Establishing preservation protocols for accessibility-enhanced datasets

We are calling on EU institutions, policymakers, cultural heritage organisations, and tech developers to collaborate more closely—and more equitably—with disabled communities. The MuseIT project is committed to supporting that effort through knowledge production, pilot initiatives, and cross-sector dialogue.

Read the Policy Brief and Join the Conversation

This brief and its policy analysis are designed to be tools for dialogue—across disciplines, across institutions, and most importantly, with those whose access to culture is too often compromised.

Read them here: https://www.muse-it.eu/publications