Exhibit Design Relating to Low Vision and Blindness Summary Report: Research on Effective Use of Tactile Exhibits with Touch Activated Audio Description for the Blind and Low Vision Audience

Guidelines

It seems appropriate at this juncture to discuss a bit about our thoughts on how the results of this research could best be used. We do not advocate the adoption of strict standards and rules for the design of tactile exhibits because the type of objects that lend themselves to tactile representation vary so widely. Tactile objects are tied closely to the exhibit’s interpretive theme and defy the same standardized approach that can be applied to an exhibit’s mounting height, door size and location, or text size. Nor do they fall into the same category as an “appliance” or computer interface that might have a standard operating procedure and standards such as the location and arrangement of text and numerical keypads.

Where and how tactile exhibits are used will depend on many of the same factors that influence any exhibit project like theme, artifact resources, scheduling, and budget. That being said, we believe that tactile exhibits should be given equal status to any decision being made during the design process about effective communication of exhibit information and thematic content. The role tactile exhibits can play in providing a multimodal approach to learning and an “equivalent” museum experience for all is engaging, effective and profound.

Guiding Principles

We encourage an inclusive and holistic approach to guide the museum staff, exhibit curators, designers, and fabricators through the process. To that end, we have developed some guiding principles that we think are useful in approaching the use of tactile exhibits.

Perhaps the place to begin is to look at the fundamental goals that all exhibits share. In their treatise on the evaluation of science exhibits the National Science Foundation suggests the following measures for success: 

1. Increase awareness, knowledge or understanding of a particular topic, concept, phenomena, or theory;

2. Increase engagement or interest in the theme(s) of the exhibit;

3. Change attitudes about a particular topic, concept, phenomena, or theory;

4. Change behavior about an exhibit topic

5. Increase perceptual, observational, and interpretive skills as a result of the exhibit experience. 

To many, these goals might seem self-evident. While it is difficult to predict to what degree any particular exhibit will be successful in achieving these goals, they do provide a structure of purpose at the beginning of the exhibit design process and an important backdrop for any decision making process. These goals also provide a useful foundation for measuring communication effectiveness in an exhibit evaluation process. 

In addition to these fundamental goals we suggest the following guidelines for the development of tactile exhibits. 

1. The exhibit design team should include a consultant or museum staff member who is blind. Their role is to evaluate whether the proposed tactile exhibit communicates clearly to the blind or low vision audience. If possible, more than one visually impaired consultant should be engaged in order to provide different perspectives.

2. The inclusion of tactile exhibit elements as an integral part of the exhibit should be introduced at the earliest thematic and programming stage of the exhibit design process. Tactile elements should not be added on later as an after-thought. 

3. The use of touch and tactile exhibit elements should be recognized as a part of a multi-modal learning strategy. Touch is one of our most basic experiential learning tools but it is frequently overlooked in our visual and auditory dominant world.

4. Tactile exhibit elements should include an audio component. Audio information, description, or interpretation should be carefully scripted and explicitly connected to the tactile experience of the tactile element. When possible, the audio information should be accessible on a hands free basis. Tactile exploration with both hands is important for the development of effective mental images

5. Ideally a visitor should be able to explore an entire tactile piece while standing in one spot, which gives an overall dimension of approximately 50” wide by 30” deep. In the instance that a tactile exhibit needs to be larger (a very large map perhaps or the life sized model of a large creature), care should be taken to make sure that the audio track can be heard from any point on the model or, if using a tactile key, that more than one key should be included so the visitor can always explore the model and a key at the same time.

6. Tactile elements of an exhibit should retain their original dimensional characteristics as much as possible. To reduce a three-dimensional object, such as a building, to a raised line drawing does not provide a clear understanding of the object. For people who have visual impairments the ability to develop dimensional concepts and mental images is greatly enhanced when tactile information is presented in a fully robust form.

7. When representing an item in which pattern or color change is an important part of the concept, for instance the stripes on a zebra, texture can be added to highlight the pattern. This addition of texture must be clearly explained in the audio description so that no confusion arises. We do not advocate the use of a particular type of texture to always represent a particular color. 

8. Tactile exhibit elements should fulfill the guiding principles of Universal Design:

• a. Are useful for people with diverse abilities;

• b. Can accommodate a wide range of preferences and abilities;

• c. Are simple and intuitive to use;

• d. Provide the added dimension of communicating perceptual information regardless of the ambient conditions or the users sensory abilities;

• e. Have no moving parts that are hazardous to use;

• f. Can be used with a minimum of effort;

• g. Exemplify a design that accommodates an easy approach and use regardless of the user’s body size, posture, or visual acuity.