Museums and the “Digital Curb Cut”

In 1999, the year before the Tate Modern opened its doors on the South Bank in London, Caro Howell and Dan Porter began to research new methods for engaging persons with visual impairments in art education. At the time, Howell was a Curator for Special Projects at Tate Modern and led “touch tours” in the galleries to make art more accessible to blind visitors. Her research entailed discovering linguistic methods that resonated with this audience in addition to the tactile approach. She wanted to augment the tactile means typically employed as she felt it was too limiting; only a small selection of objects were approved by the conservators for public handling, and paintings were particularly excluded from this group. Additionally, Howell wanted to provide a solution that would serve the needs of persons with all degrees of vision and not just blind people.

Howell collaborated with Dan Porter, an art historian and Flash developer also employed by the Tate, to conceive of and produce an online complement to the “Matisse Picasso” exhibition held in 2002 (http://www.tate.org.uk/imap). The i-Map project specifically addressed the challenges visually impaired persons face when learning about modern art. Porter wondered:

How then can someone who is congenitally blind be given intellectual access to non-tactile artworks that are not artefacts, that do not have clear descriptive relationships to objects and experiences from the lived world and that refer to and are of and about themselves only? (Howell & Porter, 2003)

Howell and Porter addressed this educational initiative in several ways for the initial project: for persons with some usable eyesight, the paintings were recreated as drawings that could be deconstructed, animated, and presented in high contrast mode alongside text descriptions that were informed by their prior research. The illustrative approach was also necessary for legal reasons, as the estates of Matisse and Picasso were consulted and image reproduction rights disallowed the original paintings to be digitally deconstructed.

According to Rose Cardiff, the Project Manager for Digital Programmes at the Tate Modern, the deconstructive methodology was employed to break down the paintings into understandable components. “Rather than examining the entire artwork at once, i-Map introduces detail in a carefully planned sequence, gradually building towards an understanding of the work as a whole,” as stated on the i-Map web site (http://www.tate.org.uk/imap/). For example, in Picasso’s “Nude with Raised Arms,” the figure is isolated against a black background (see Figure 35). This approach has the added benefit of enriching the educational experience for those with full vision as well as those with visual impairments. After all, a lack of understanding of modern art is not limited to persons who have difficulty seeing; knowing what to pay attention to and how to place it within a larger context is important for any individual learning about modern art. This is important, as the primary audience for i-Map was intended to be adults with all ranges of vision.

Howell did however acknowledge that persons who are born blind have different requirements, for they are unable to visualize in their head. For visitors that are totally blind, “raised images” could be downloaded and printed through a chemical process, or requested from the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) in Peterborough. The web site describes the process for creating the “raised images”:

i-Map’s raised images, downloadable at the bottom of this page in PDF format, are designed to be created using swell paper and a heat fusing machine such as Zy-Fuse. The image to be raised needs to be printed or photocopied onto the swell paper and passed through the machine. The heat is absorbed by the black areas of the image, and the chemical reaction that it produces causes those areas to rise and swell. (http://www.tate.org.uk/imap/imap2/pages/raisedimages.html)

The raised images are prefaced by Braille text introductions, and a mark is provided in Braille in the top right to indicate proper orientation. The drawings are high contrast black and white versions of the online animation (see Figure 36); portions of the paintings are isolated and enlarged in a series to tell the complete story. The descriptions could then be read by a screen-reader, while the elements of the drawings were discovered by touch. Howell had used this technique in the gallery “touch tours” and extended their use by providing the materials and narrative content online. The online component enabled study to be conducted independently or with a teacher’s assistance, and complemented gallery visits as well. As Howell and Porter (2003) noted, “visually impaired people often find travel complicated and stressful,” and the online materials made the educational experience accessible from a distance. Porter continued:

The process of reassessing the parameters and definitions of art education for visually impaired people revealed the Web to be an ideal vehicle for increasing intellectual access and delivering effective interpretation in a format that offers autonomy of exploration. However, in order for a project such as i-Map to confidently defy received Web design wisdom and develop tailor made solutions, it’s content needs to be the product of successful methodology and focused research. (Howell & Porter, 2003)

Howell and Porter indeed provided a solidly researched approach towards educating a most unlikely audience for modern art, the visually impaired, by providing them with the tools needed to experience work on their own. Granted, the same tools also help those with “normal” sight understand an often alienating and complex subject.

Cardiff also indicated that both Howell and Porter have since left the Tate, yet they continue to collaborate on the next iteration of the i-Map project as freelance consultants. In fact, the first project was so well received that as soon as the initial project was complete, planning began on the next installment entitled “i-Map: The Everyday Transformed” (http://www.tate.org.uk/imap/imap2). Following a two-year discovery period in 2002-2004, eighteen months of research and development ensued. Unlike the 2002 i-Map project, the 2006 version was not designed to complement a physical exhibition; it was intended from the start to be a lasting resource based on objects in the collection. Six paintings by a variety artists including Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia and Giorgio de Chirico, were selected for the 2006 project. Cardiff noted that two more paintings will be added in 2007.

User testing and feedback submitted from the site had revealed a number of shortcomings in the first implementation that would be addressed in the 2006 version. Thus, the new i-Map project built upon the previous project and research, with notable improvements. For example, the new i-Map interface featured a “style switcher” to enable visitors to choose between the default, large text, or high contrast presentations of the same information (see Figures 37, 38 and 39). In addition to setting the background color to dark purple with white type, the high contrast version also reformatted the content into one column instead of two, presumably to aid visitors who are using a screen magnifier to enlarge the screen view. This user-configured option can be easily accommodated in Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for html-based sites, and it was designed to enable visitors with usable eyesight to better access the information, according to their own preferences.

Cardiff noted that all unnecessary links were removed from the navigation to further simplify the usage of the site for persons experiencing the site aurally through a screen-reader. Links were also renamed to better represent their purpose. Most notably, audio narration, read by British celebrity Crispin Bonham Carter, was provided in place of the text descriptions; this enabled the program to be “self-voicing” and thus used without the aid of a screen-reader. The same audio was employed on the “Raised Images and Audio” portion of the site intended for visitors who are blind. Unlike the previous version, in which the text was provided on screen to be read by a screen-reader, the 2006 i-Map project used Real Audio files embedded in the html page, thus eliminating the need for screen-reader technology (see Figure 40). However, this approach does require the installation of Real Audio browser plug-in technology. Transcripts of the audio are provided as well, yet captions are not displayed on screen. While this project focused on the needs of the visually impaired, captions for the audio commentary would have been a welcome addition for visitors with hearing loss or who do not speak English as their primary language. Additionally, the ability to control the audio playback, including volume, pause and mute, would have been useful for all audiences to follow along at their own pace.

The strengths of Flash were used in the “Animation and Audio” version to provide interactive controls that were designed specifically for persons with visual impairments. “Talking buttons” could be enabled to provide audio feedback for button selections (see Figure 41); the buttons could be navigated by pressing the Right, Left and Up cursor keys, as indicated on the “Animation Check!” interim page that precedes each animated feature. In the 2002 version, the keys D, F, J and K were treated as keyboard shortcuts that were also visually represented as buttons on the screen (see Figure 42). User testing revealed that these controls were not as easy to use as the arrow keys, so the switch was made for the 2006 project. The “Animation Check!” page also provided a clear orientation for visually impaired visitors, to prepare them for what is to come:

The animation that follows features a fully integrated audio commentary. The audio will launch automatically at the start of the animation. If you are currently using a Screen Reader, you may wish to temporarily silence it so that it does not conflict with the commentary. (http://www.tate.org.uk/imap/imap2/pages/animated/schwitters_a.html)

Lastly, the images were presented in a much larger format, nearly full screen, to better accommodate visitors with all degrees of eyesight. Audio feedback was provided while the animations loaded, along with a visual clock. Once loaded, animations zoomed in on the images to provide a better view of the details, in time with the audio commentary. Parts of the paintings were isolated in layers that could be deconstructed and reassembled in time with the audio commentary (see Figures 43, 44 and 45). The 2006 version also used color in the animated drawings presented against a high-contrast, black background to further differentiate features discussed in the commentary.

Cardiff provided an interesting observation into a fundamental change in accessible web design that had occurred since the first i-Map project was completed in 2002: she acknowledged what she termed an “accessibility backlash,” as all the rich, visual and interactive content that had been stripped out in the name of accessibility was beginning to resurface. After all, target audiences for accessible sites were not limited to only blind persons; visitors with some usable eyesight could benefit from the use of images as well as persons who are not native speakers of the language employed, and those with learning disabilities. In particular, Flash, which had once been relegated to the completely inaccessible “walled garden” or “black box” as described in the previous case studies, had evolved into an extremely useful tool for enabling accessibility on many levels. In particular, the Tate made special efforts to seamlessly blend Flash animations into the html pages that contain them:

We recognise that accessing information purely from a Flash movie can be disorientating, but hope to have designed our animated pages in such a way as to facilitate relatively smooth transitions out of and back into the HTML pages to which they link. (http://www.tate.org.uk/imap/imap2/pages/animations.html)

Additionally, the “talking buttons,” animations timed to audio commentary, and keyboard navigation demonstrated the utility of Flash content designed to serve accessible purposes. In effect, the 2006 i-Map project followed the emerging best practices for Flash development by taking advantage of its rich programmable interface for deploying multimedia content. As described in a recent blog entry (Davies, 2006):

Flash has an advantage over HTML and CSS in that it is far better placed in dealing with learning based or reading based disabilities. Its foundation as a vector based graphics engine trumps HTML’s and CSS’ mediocre feature set when tackling disability barriers best met with interactivity and graphics. Its time to admit, Flash is part of the web accessibility toolbox.

By providing multiple, concurrent modalities and keyboard navigable commands, i-Map has succeeding in providing a media-rich, online educational experience that is completely accessible for persons with impaired vision.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the i-Map projects are not that they have consistently won top honors, including the Interactive BAFTA Award for Accessibility 2002, Visionary Design Awards of 2002 and the Jodi Mattes Award of Excellence in 2003 and 2006, but that it was funded by a membership appeal. The Tate supporters believed in the vision of two staff members and supported their efforts generously.