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Multisensory Diorama: Enhancing Accessibility and Engagement in Museums

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Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2023 (INTERACT 2023)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 14143))

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Abstract

This paper describes the design and evaluation of a Multisensory Diorama (MSD) intended as a tool to provide an alternative learning environment for people with intellectual disabilities (ID) in museums. The MSD is designed to be interactive, engaging, and accessible to accommodate the specificities of participants with ID, and to help contextualize and consolidate previous knowledge. The MSD is a portable box with RFID readers, LEDs, a fan, a photoresistor, a button, an Arduino Uno, an MP3 shield, a speaker, and an external battery. The MSD offers two different ways of engagement and interaction via exploration and gamification: visitors can explore the augmented landscape and play a matching game that reinforces their knowledge of the food chain in the forest. In a formative evaluation approach focusing on the accessibility and engagement with the MSD, a study was conducted with 12 adults with ID, who provided valuable feedback to improve the design and make necessary adjustments for future implementations. The MSD proved to be a successful tool for engaging visitors and reinforcing their understanding of the food chain in an interactive and accessible way.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our amazing participants from ANFFAS and SNSF for funding this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Università della Svizzera Italiana (USI), Lugano, Switzerland

    Leandro S. Guedes, Irene Zanardi & Monica Landoni

  2. Cooperativa Sociale Trieste Integrazione a m. Anffas Onlus, Trieste, Italy

    Stefania Span

Authors
  1. Leandro S. Guedes
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  2. Irene Zanardi
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  3. Stefania Span
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  4. Monica Landoni
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Leandro S. Guedes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of West London, London, UK

    José Abdelnour Nocera

  2. Reykjavik University, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Marta Kristín Lárusdóttir

  3. University of York, York, UK

    Helen Petrie

  4. University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari, Italy

    Antonio Piccinno

  5. Université Côte d’Azur, Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

    Marco Winckler

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Guedes, L.S., Zanardi, I., Span, S., Landoni, M. (2023). Multisensory Diorama: Enhancing Accessibility and Engagement in Museums. In: Abdelnour Nocera, J., Kristín Lárusdóttir, M., Petrie, H., Piccinno, A., Winckler, M. (eds) Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2023. INTERACT 2023. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 14143. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42283-6_34

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42283-6_34

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-42282-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-42283-6

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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