Inclusive IT systems to open up the world of culture to those with disabilities

In today's society, we often focus on "the norm" and design our spaces, tools, and techniques so that those who can see, hear, and have fully functioning bodies have access to society's resources. However, a significant portion of society i.e., those who live with disabilities are excluded from the information offered, or lack access to various resources.

According to the Project Coordinator Nasrine Olson, Senior Lecturer in Library and Information Science at the University of Borås, "Basically, society's resources should be available to everyone, but this is not the case today. This project will be a step forward in improving accessibility. MuseIT aims to promote inclusion, participation, accessibility, and equal opportunities for all people. In the project, we aim to improve accessibility to cultural assets by developing multisensory representations and alternative cultural expressions in order to enable everyone to participate, regardless of potential variations in functional or sensory abilities.”

That is, all people, regardless of variations in abilities and needs should be able to access cultural assets through inclusive accessible systems. This project will also develop methods for the preservation and protection of cultural heritage with a focus on inclusion as well as a multisensory, multi-layered preserving of cultural heritage.

About MuseIT

This project brings together expertise and methods from different research areas such as museology, computer science, natural language processing, cultural policy, library and information science, haptic technology, performing arts, neuroscience, artificial intelligence (AI), archaeology , machine learning (ML), augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and more.

Eleven partners from nine countries are participating in the project, which is coordinated by the University of Borås.

Follow the project via its website