According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, one in eight people in the United States ages 12+ have hearing loss in both ears. Given the prevalence of hearing loss in the United States, it is in performing arts’ organizations best interest to include solutions to make their work as accessible as possible. Disability advocates have spoken out about the need for better accessibility in the arts. No matter the medium captionins is provided, whether looking off stage, at a handheld device, or directly through the lenes of AR-supported glasses, all techonolgies are ensure that the theatre is a welcoming place for all.
Arts Vibrancy and Digital Access: Part 2
Part one of this research looked at the relationship between broadband deployment and arts vibrancy in the United States, focusing on Texas. This article examines factors that are driving the digital divide and relatively low arts vibrancy in two counties on the Texas-Mexico border and how that could inform policies in the United States as a whole.
Case Studies of Livestreaming in Theatre: Part 2
When considering the medium of livestreaming for organizational programming, one must be aware of its many advantages and challenges. This second portion looks at two case studies. The first case study, The Geffen, set the precedent for non-Broadway theaters working with BroadwayHD. The second case study, The Orlando Shakespeare Theater, illustrates how a large regional theater can impact hundreds of classrooms with one performance, on a budget that is more feasible for regional theater companies.
#TBT: Accessibility in the Arts
This past year, contributor Kate Tsai gave us several fantastic articles about accommodating disabilities for arts non-profits. It really seemed to interest our readers so we wanted to re-post some of the Kate's best articles, and remind our audience of a few past gems as well.
First Kate gave us a fantastic infographic about many different types of impairments and disabilities that can create barriers when interacting with an arts organization. In addition, she walked us through 6 quick ways to adjust websites, making them more readable and clear for audiences of all kinds.
Some of our most well-read accessibility articles center on technology for museums. In the spirit of other brief overviews. In 2016, contributor Christine Nolan showed audiences just which technologies can contribute to a more accessible and audience-friendly museum experience.
5 Technologies with the Potential to Enhance the Museum Experience
In the same vein, contributor Stephanie Sun wrote about 5 technologies that give audiences ways to connect differently with the arts experience. Although these weren't highlighted directly as opportunities to improve accessibility in Museums, they are all opportunities in these areas. For instance, 3-D scanning has made it possible for Museums to create touchable replicas for people with vision impairment. What are some other applications of these technologies that open doors for improved accessibility.
Opening Doors
Museums are not the only ones looking to accommodate a wider range of audiences. Contributor Christine Sajewski writes a two-part piece on what sensory-friendly performances are and how they are implemented effectively in the field. The first part focuses on the 'what' and the second part focuses on the 'how'.
Accessibility Rebooted: Technological Advancements to Improve Accessibility in Museums
With the growing emphasis on providing learning experiences that occur outside the classroom, accessibility and inclusivity is of paramount importance to museums transitioning into the 21st century. As museums become more inclusive, their methods of communication must be equally as effective between people with disabilities and those without.
Opening Doors: Best Practices for Developing Sensory-Friendly Programs
In part 1 of Opening Doors, I reflected on sensory-friendly programming through my personal experience at Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre. These performances create an incredible opportunity for arts organizations to include individuals and families from around their communities. Yet effective implementation requires time and in-depth planning with staff and community partners. This second post continues the discussion looking at best practices related to sensory-friendly program design.
Research Update: The Feasibility of Open Captioning
The Best of Both Worlds: QRpedia.
While scanning a quick response (QR) code on the back of a cereal box only to find it directs you to the cereal’s web site is, how can I put this 
politely, fun (that’s my attempt at sarcasm), it neither reflects the appropriate usage nor does it maximize the potential of those nifty little black and white squares.
There's the cereal box QR code, and then there's QRpedia. QRpedia is a program announced by the Wikimedia Foundation in September 2011. It is currently competing in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress for the title of the United Kingdom’s “most innovative mobile company.” Today, on February 29th, the winner of the award will be announced. The reward? The United Kingdom Trade and Investment’s (UKTI) support to expand the company internationally.
But enough about the competition. What exactly is QRpedia and how does it work in the museum setting? It functions just as an ordinary QR code does, except for its whole language-detecting brilliance. A Polish speaking viewer walks up to, let’s say, Claude Lorrain’s Seaport at Sunset (1639) hanging in the Louvre in Paris. In front of the text panel, the visitor whips out his/her smartphone and snaps a photo of the QRpedia code. The QRpedia code instantly detects the phone’s language and the browser opens to a Wikipedia article on the painting or related topic in that written language. If an article on Claude Lorrain’s Seaport at Sunset isn’t available in Polish, the QRpedia code will direct the user to the next most closely related topic available in that language, perhaps an article on the French, 17th-century landscape painter, Nicolas Poussin.
QRpedia’s language-detecting technology makes it truly unique. For foreign visitors, this eliminates the expense of an audio guide from museum visits (if there is a guide even available in their preferred language) and replaces it with the ease of snapping a photo, the interactivity of a QR code and the straight-forward, mobile-formatted information of a Wikipedia article.
[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aXCUOpBytxA [/embed]
Terence Eden, the lead developer of QRpedia, says
QRpedia is the perfect way to get access to massive amounts of cultural information. A typical museum display has less than a paragraph of text, often just in one language – QRpedia can give encyclopedic information in hundreds of languages. Recently, in Derby Museum, a painting by Joseph Wright was taken away for cleaning. The Museum staff have put a QRpedia code in its place so that visitors can still see a high quality image of the painting, and read information about the painting and its creator.
The program was created at the Derby Museum and Gallery in England. Today it is available online for any and every museum, gallery, library, public park, archive, historic landmark and so on. QRpedia has been implemented at numerous prestigious museums and galleries worldwide, including the United Kingdom’s National Archives and Spain’s Fundació Joan Miró. How about the United States, you ask? Why yes! It has been implemented at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. But why stop there? Its usage is not limited to arts and cultural institutions. Fun fact- the Occupy movement uses QRpedia codes on its posters and publications to disperse information to a wide and diverse audience.
What’s in it for the museum? A lot, actually.
1) You can create your own, online, as often and as many as you want.
2) For museums with multilingual audiences, a text panel can become cluttered and overwhelming with various translations. Additionally, the space allotted to provide relevant information becomes increasingly limited with numerous translations, causing you to cut-back even further on relevant information.
3) Because Wikipedia is editable, a curator, exhibition director, museum official or artist can translate articles to various languages and create articles if there is a void. That being said, so can anyone else. But be brave. Be bold. Be confident in the power of the public intellectual collective.
4) According to Roger Bamkin, the co-creator of QRpedia and the chair of Wikimedia UK, “We see e-volunteers giving thousands of hours to support museums... Hundreds of new articles have been created in dozens of different languages.” Beyond printing the codes, I’d say the work is done almost entirely for you.
5) QRpedia codes are not limited to paintings and items in your collection. Incorporate them in museum signage, directionals, cafe menus, etc.
6) QRpedia 
also records usage analytics. Museums, galleries, whoever, can track the number of QRpedia users, the paintings with the most QR code action, the most common languages, etc. In my humble opinion, it offers a rather innovative way to get to know your audience.
Accessible, innovative, interactive (for those inside the museum and those elsewhere translating Wikipedia articles without any intent to ever visit the museum…), and FREE. For museums and cultural institutions looking to expand into the QR code realm, this is the place to start. The Wikipedia articles are already written, online, and translated. Why not offer your visitors a more complete museum experience in their preferred language?
Roadside Digital Galleries: Coming to a City Near You
Every some-odd miles along the highway you zoom past a billboard for Dunkin Donuts seasonal coffees; the local hospital’s most recent, national ranking; a sexy, sleek couple drinking Jose Cuervo and a dramatic advertisement for what can only be described as a less-than-credible attorney. Firms and organizations seek to capitalize on the exposure a billboard provides their brand or service in its commanding position above and along the highway. Hoping to attract potential consumers or clients, the billboard is one of the most prominent and far-reaching means of advertising to a certain geographic location. From the morning commute to the bus ride home, and every moment between, we are inundated with advertisements in one form or another.
Though the constant stream of advertisements is admittedly annoying, advertising powers our economy, encourages consumerism and inspires us to try new products and attend performances. But commute after commute, the billboards and their advertisements littered along the highway become nothing more than white noise.
The Billboard Art Project, a Virginia based not-for-profit, is temporarily reclaiming a handful of digital LED billboards in select cities across the country. Repurposing the advertising billboard as an artistic medium and a public art venue, the Billboard Art Project is marketing a different, non-commercial message
Those in-your-face and colorful canvases that you see as you sit stuck in traffic are turned over to local and international artists for a little break from everyday advertising, presenting larger-than-life art in glowing colors…You won't know what is coming next as different artists explore this medium, with the electronic canvas morphing every 6-10 seconds.
While out driving, Billboard Art Project creator David Morrison, was moved by the soothing images displayed during a screen test for one of Lamar Advertising’s (a Louisiana based advertising firm) digital LED billboards. The scrolling images were void of logos, brands, and slogans- images for images’ sake, if you will. In a domain that is typically reserved for corporations, commercial advertising and profit-driven marketing, Morrison found the images refreshing, even humanizing. Deviating from social expectations for exhibiting art and of the function of a billboard, the Billboard Art Project repurposes digital billboards to breathe new life into the daily commute- the epitome of the mundane and the expected, of the everyday and the routine.
The Billboard Art Project launched in October 2010 after Morrison successfully negotiated with Lamar Advertising for use of one of the company’s digital LED screens for 24 hours. Thanks to the digital technology of the billboard, the project promises 24 hours of a continuous stream of vibrant images, without interruption or advertisements. In an open call to doctors; cab drivers; students; clerks; professors; military personnel; hospital workers; the unemployed; designers; mail carriers; New Englanders; Pittsburghers; Texans- anyone- the Billboard Art Project invites submissions to be considered for each show. It is an all-inclusive project in which everyone is invited to participate by either submitting a work or simply driving past it. The medium becomes the message as the digital billboard disseminates art and individuality.
The project is currently showing in New Orleans, with previous exhibits in Chicago, IL; Reading, PA; Duluth, MN; Savannah, GA, Nashville, TN and Richmond, VA. Up next, the Billboard Art Project heads to Baton Rouge, LA then San Bernardino, CA. Each submission is as unique to the individual creator as the final compilation is to the city and billboard. No two shows are alike.
Bringing art to the streets in a free, public and conveniently located show, the Billboard Art Project is challenging the traditional domain for both advertising and displaying art. But is this new manifestation, the roadside digital gallery, a viable venue for art? Let us know what you think. In the meantime, keep one eye on the road and one on the lookout for a roadside electronic gallery, coming to a city near you.