Developing W-ICAD as a means of enhancing equity, diversity and inclusion within museum digital audio interpretation

Central to the purpose of a museum is communicating with their audiences about their collections. Within the AHRC-NEH funded project (AH/W005549/1) we developed the Workshop for Inclusive Co-created Audio Description (W-ICAD). W-ICAD provides museums with a new tool for supporting communication with audiences. It does this by redefining the way that museums think about and produce digitally available recorded audio description (AD). AD is often described as a verbal description for information available through vision. It is a key tool for blind and partially blind audiences who would like to experience museum collections. In both the UK and US, museums are legally obliged to ensure equitable access to their collections. However, museums need to dramatically increase AD provision both within museums and online.

Building on opportunities afforded by the digital revolution, W-ICAD provides museums with a new, equitable and inclusive way to co-create AD. It provides both a theoretical rationale and a practical process that will transform museum digital audio interpretation for use within the museum (often via a mobile phone) or online. W-ICAD transforms thinking by drawing on evidence from psychology and neuroscience to refute three key implicit biases that underpin current museum AD practice: (1) 'experience' through sight is objective; (2) AD is only beneficial to blind or partially blind people; and (3) full sight provides people with a privileged experience of visual arts, and therefore sighted people must do the describing for blind and partially blind listeners. W-ICAD transforms practice by providing museums with a model for producing AD that redefines how museum AD is created, who it is for, and who does the describing: subjectivity and the lived experience of the describers is embraced; descriptions are created equally for blind, partially blind and sighted audiences; description is led by partially blind co-creators, in collaboration with blind and sighted co-creators. Through W-ICAD, we have transformed the ways in which museum collections can be experienced by audiences (in museums and online).

This follow-on impact and engagement funding will enable us to embed W-ICAD into museum practice, whilst extending its reach within the museum and heritage sector. We will work with 8 flagship W-ICAD museums, across the UK and US, to make inclusive co-created audio description a standard part of their communication with audiences. The partners include: globally-leading national organisations (National Science and Media Museum, UK; Imperial War Museum Duxford, UK; National Museums Liverpool, UK; Natural History Museum, UK; Smithsonian Institution, US); Medium - large size museums (Eiteljorg Museum, US & Wexner Center for the Arts, US) and Small organisations (Heurich House, US). With these sector partners, we will expand W-ICAD to incorporate:

- description of different environments (including exterior), different artworks (including abstract) and museum objects
- co-created audio description for multisensory experience including describing tactile exploration
- different lived experiences (e.g.intersectionality, diverse cultural backgrounds) within museum interpretation
- guidance for W-ICAD to support co-creators to ethically and sensitively describe diversity

To maximise the reach of W-ICAD, and to ensure its legacy, we will work with our flagship museums to create an open access online W-ICAD training course for museum professionals, AD practitioners and stakeholders. This will enable other museums across the world to implement W-ICAD within their interpretation strategy for digital AD (available within the museum or online). The promotion and implementation of this model within museum practice will strengthen awareness of the ableist biases within current practice and enhance equity, diversity and inclusion within the museum sector and beyond.