The GT Accessible Aquarium Project

Abstract

Zoos and aquaria are in the business of educating and entertaining the visiting public. However, as the number of people with disabilities living in the community has grown, and as public environments have become more accessible to them, such informal learning environments (ILEs) are faced with accommodating an increasingly diverse visitor population with varying physical and sensory needs. This is even more challenging for ILEs with dynamic exhibits, where the movements, changes, and interactions are extremely difficult to describe to individuals who lack vision. The GT Accessible Aquarium Project is an interdisciplinary team effort to make dynamic exhibits such as those at museums, science centers, zoos and aquaria more engaging and accessible for visitors with vision impairments by providing real-time interpretations of the exhibits using innovative tracking, music, narrations, and adaptive sonification.