Carrie Bruce
Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology
Facilitating Participation in Adults with Vision Loss through Real-Time Descriptive Exhibit Mediation
Aquariums are unique community settings where people can participate in various exhibit-related activities intended to support educational, entertainment, restorative, and social goals such as watching moving animals and talking to other visitors about what’s going on in the exhibit [1-3]. However, visitors with vision loss have significant difficulty knowing what is on display and understanding the movement that is occurring in live exhibits [4, 5]. Existing exhibit mediation systems, such as docent presentations or audio tours, that could enable or enhance participation for visitors with vision loss do not adequately describe animal and exhibit information in real-time for these visitors. Consequently, visitors with vision loss are seldom able to participate by addressing their educational, entertainment, restorative, and social goals at live aquarium exhibits. In my work, I am evaluating the effectiveness of descriptive exhibit mediation that conveys visual descriptions and associated facts in real-time at live aquarium exhibits in facilitating participation of adults with vision loss.
Through this work, I will: 1) design real-time descriptive mediation for live aquarium exhibits that meets the needs of adults with vision loss; 2) examine and compare the impact of audio mediation (i.e., real-time descriptive mediation, docent, and asynchronous audio tour) on participation of adults with vision loss at live aquarium exhibits; and 3) evaluate the effectiveness of real-time descriptive exhibit mediation on facilitating participation of adults with vision loss. Data will be collected through a visitor description survey, conversational audio and video recordings, a pre/post knowledge questionnaire, a survey on satisfaction and perceived impact, and a debriefing interview.
Research Questions
- What is the effectiveness of real-time descriptive mediation in facilitating participation of adults with vision loss at live aquarium exhibits?
- What is the impact of detailed visual scene description on the participation of adults with vision loss compared to existing docent and asynchronous audio tour mediation at live aquarium exhibits?
- What is the impact of presenting mediation in real-time on the participation of adults with vision loss compared to existing asynchronous audio tour mediation?
My main concerns at this point: I have a preliminary set of methods for collecting data (and measuring participation), but would like input on additional methods/metrics that could be useful or innovative. I would also like to discuss the ways that speech and music can be combined as mediation.
References
| Kelly, L., The Interrelationships Between Adult Museum Vicitors' Learning Identities and Their Museum Experiences. 2007, University of Technology: Sydney. |
| Packer, J., Motivational Factors and the Experience of Learning in Educational Leisure Settings, in Center for Innovation in Education. 2004, Queensland University of Technology: Brisbane, Australia. |
| Falk, J., T. Moussouri, and D. Couslon, "The effect of visitors' agendas on museum learning," Curator, 1998. 41(2): p. 107-120. |
| Bruce, C. "Best practices for exhibits in informal learning environments," in International Council for Building (CIB),Working Commission 084 Meeting. 2008. Atlanta, GA. |
| Landau, S., et al., "Creating accessible science museums with user-activated environmental audio beacons (Ping!)." Assistive Technology, 2005. 17: p. 133-143. |
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