Solid Light’s Prototyping Team Revolutionizes Museum Accessibility

APH’s upcoming accessible and interactive museum, The Dot Experience, has been a labor of love from so many in the field of blindness and low vision. As with any breakthrough project, the creation of The Dot Experience is thanks to the work of so many who are dedicating their time and energy to something much bigger than themselves.  

Danielle Burton, an employee of APH, access warrior, and DeafBlind individual, is one of those prominent figures. Always very active within the professional field of blindess or low vision, Danielle worked for the American Foundation for the Blind prior to beginning her job at APH. When word got out that Solid Light was working with APH to create a fully accessible museum, she was thrilled to volunteer and jump in on the process.  

Part of the first group of individuals prototyping the museum, each month Danielle would travel to Solid Light where they began testing a variety of potential elements of the museum. “They really thought of everything,” said Danielle. She and the team spent time listening to audio files to determine comfortable volume levels while audio descriptions played from multiple spaces in the room. They felt tactile maps, button spacing, symbols, and more to ensure all tactile elements were clear and easy to understand. Danielle was even able to provide feedback on components like flooring, considering ease of transportation with canes, wheelchairs, and guide dogs.  

According to Danielle, the most demanding part of the prototyping process so far is accommodating a wide range of abilities. For example, for a person walking with a cane, the ideal height of buttons on the wall would be different than for someone navigating in a wheelchair. Finding a way to balance the differing needs of visitors and locating a middle ground is something the Solid Light team will continue to navigate as they move forward with a diverse group of abilities within their prototyping teams. 

She believes the most important piece of this project is simply that it even exists. The ability to walk around a museum is a privilege that often goes unrealized for a sighted person. However, for an individual with blindness or low vision, a museum experience may depend on audio descriptions that hopefully are at a volume that doesn’t compete with other auditory components of exhibits.  

The 3D models are an exciting piece of this change. Solid Light’s development of 3D models will allow for those with blindness or low vision to feel the shape and details of important pieces of history normally stuck behind glass. Even now in the prototyping stages, Danielle has already had the opportunity to feel 3D copies of pieces of objects important to the history of the field of blindness. She has loved having a new level of insight into a section of history that means so much to her. “I like learning, I like history, I want to see more,” said Danielle.  

Thanks to people like Danielle and her team, Solid Light is able to continue moving forward with a project that will truly revolutionize the future of museum inclusion.  

To learn more, visit The Dot Experience website.