Harnessing the power of digital to create accessible experiences for museums
Ingenium’s Digital Innovation Lab is exploring ways to improve access to museum spaces, collections, and experiences for all Canadians.
The Digital Innovation Lab provides opportunities for digital accessibility testing sessions, pictured here for the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum’s Farming for the Future tractor simulation interactive. Photo — Ingenium - Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation.
There are over 6 million people with disabilities in Canada. Working in collaboration with these communities is a first step towards creating inclusive experiences that champion physical, cognitive, sensory, and socio-economic accessibility.
Captions, described audio, and transcripts have become standard practice to reduce barriers in the digital space. But how can museums push research further to find, remove, and prevent barriers for visitors in their own spaces? That’s where the Digital Innovation Lab comes in.
Reducing geographic and physical barriers
As a national institution, Ingenium is committed to meeting our audiences where they are to ensure that our collection, programs, services, and facilities are accessible across the country. Through the Lab, we are exploring ways to expand the boundaries of engagement to better serve our visitors across these barriers. Putting 3D models of artifacts online is one way to reduce geographic barriers to access, while 3D-printing tactile models of those same artifacts for those who like learning through touch, or have a vision impairment can help with engagement, all while ensuring the longevity of our collection. Digital wayfinding and virtual tours of our spaces help people plan ahead, and reduces travel anxiety.
The Digital Innovation Lab is a creative hub for a variety of uses, from collaborative meetings and workshops, to 3D scanning and rendering. Photo — Ingenium - Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation.
Collaborate to innovate
The Lab is a creative hub bringing together a network of public, private and academic sectors to help move the needle on digital accessibility, and to make experiences more inclusive from the start. Working with the Lab offers access to a customizable space built with accessibility in mind. It also grants users access to advanced 3D scanners that can quickly digitize small to large objects and spaces at a high level of fidelity and low cost. This experience is enhanced through several other facilities, including: digital expertise and specialized workshops in digital accessibility, 3D scanning and rendering, user experience (UX), and more. Finally, users gain access to a wide variety of audiences for testing their digital products.
Farming Adventure, an accessible approach to gaming
The Lab launched its first interactive at the Ingenium Canada Agriculture and Food Museum last year - an accessible and digitally immersive tractor game that encouraged play and learning with museum visitors.
The Lab was able simulate what it would be like to drive a tractor through a field while including gamified elements such as replacing the tractor’s windshields with digital screens. More importantly, in consultation with persons with disabilities, and after multiple prototypes and user testing sessions, the Lab integrated sound effects, haptic feedback, and a variety of tips and tricks to make driving through a field a more accessible, immersive experience, especially for people who are blind or low vision.
The Digital Innovation Lab offers specialized services including 3D scanning and rendering using advanced scanners that can quickly digitize small to large objects and spaces at a high level of fidelity and low cost. Photo — Ingenium - Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation.
Work with us
The future looks bright. With so many opportunities to explore mixed realities, museums can tell more engaging stories. We can bring artefacts back to life when they’re typically behind glass, and create full room-scale digital environments that can transport visitors into a world of imagination. But as eager as we are to embrace these quickly emerging digital technologies, it is equally important to assess if they add or remove barriers to access for our visitors.
Ingenium is eager to collaborate to break down these barriers. It is our hope that the knowledge we gain, and lessons learned around digital accessibility in this Lab can be shared with anyone interested in making digital products more accessible in their own spaces.
Ingenium oversees three national museums of science and innovation in Ottawa — the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, and the Canada Science and Technology Museum. Its lngenium Centre houses an exceptional collection of artifacts, a research institute, and a digital innovation lab.
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