Advancements in digital transformation have enriched the interactive experience of cultural heritage. The adoption of digital technologies has benefited the development of virtual museum tours, preservation of cultural assets, digitised archives enabling broader and engaging means of access to cultural heritage.
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Despite critical advances, structural deficiencies remain: lack of accessibility for all, limited opportunities for all members of society to participate in cultural and creative industries on equal basis, and limited interoperable digital repositories for archiving accessible multisensory cultural assets and related archival structures. With one billion people experiencing some form of disability and one-fifth of these experiencing significant disabilities, access or opportunities to engage with cultural assets is not equally available to all.
Our objective and what we will do: co-design, creation and inclusion
The MuseIT project aims to co-design, develop, and co-evaluate a multisensory, user-centred platform for enriched engagement with cultural assets with inclusion and equal opportunity for all as core principles. The MuseIT innovation is rooted in multisensory representations of cultural heritage which extend beyond the visual and auditory senses.
Participatory co-design activities will be integral to enable users with disabilities to be involved in decisions and designs that will affect their lives. Enriched experiences of cultural assets created by MuseIT will not be limited to this group and is likely to enhance the level of participation and enjoyment for all people. Impacts are likely to include the democratization of cultural asset experiences, and tangible growth in creative and cultural industries.
Challenge 1: Accessibility of cultural assets
by development of multisensory representations and alternative expressions to enable engagement by the public regardless of functional or sensory impairments.
Multisensory
representations
Challenge 2: Broader engagement with cultural assets and cultural co-creation
achieved through development of remote inclusive co-creation services for multi-modal born-digital cultural assets, and cultural engagements by a broader public regardless of variations in abilities and perceptual modalities.
Remote
co-creative engagement
Challenge 3: Methodologies for preservation and safeguarding of cultural heritage with inclusion at its core
achieved through formal specification and novel methodologies for multisensory, layered repository towards (long-term) preservation of cultural assets.
Inclusive
repository
Our approach
The scientific and technical innovation proposed in the project is aimed at enriching the accessibility for, and inclusion of all while interacting with cultural heritage assets and historical archives.
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The proposed innovation will be validated within the project through a stakeholder consultation systematically achieved using participatory approaches and the adoption of co-design principles.
Such community interactions will by design involve people living with disabilities. Formal user requirements aggregated from stakeholders will be leveraged to formalise the specification of the MuseIT scientific innovations.
