Roberto Vaz | Universidade do Porto (original) (raw)
Books by Roberto Vaz
Handbook of Research on Technological Developments for Cultural Heritage and eTourism ApplicationsChapter: 2Publisher: IGI Global, 2018
With the constant development of digital means of entertainment – that are easily made available ... more With the constant development of digital means of entertainment – that are easily made available to people and, in most cases, can be used anywhere – nowadays, a visit to a museum have to surround publics with unexpected and interactive experiences, in order to capture their attention and make them want to go to these places, in addition to continue to communicate their collections and promote society education. In this regard, it was discussed in this chapter the actual panorama of interactive technologies used in museums exhibitions worldwide, and there are discussed how these institutions are designing digital installations and utilizing virtual media to enhance the visitors' experience, promoting positive relations between them and their publics. The main conclusion and reflection of the chapter is based on how this new era of technology is allowing increasing physical, cognitive and sensory accessibility, and transforms this kind of experience for disabled publics.
Papers by Roberto Vaz
Procedia Computer Science, 2024
Research on business incubators has been advocating their impacts in promoting industry innovatio... more Research on business incubators has been advocating their impacts in promoting industry innovation, economic growth, fostering entrepreneurship, and social development. However, the literature gap concerning business incubator models remains, among them how to operationalize digital ones, and the knowledge about management practices informed by primary incubators’ stakeholders is also scant. Thus, this study aims to convey the fourth phase of a research project following a design science research methodology. It relied on the participation of 39 incubator managers and startup founders in focus groups and interview sessions to co-design a future digital incubation program. It informs a set of practical and knowledgeable guidelines for developing, running, and managing digital business incubators, organized on an eight-dimension proposed framework to assist academics and organization professionals interested in creating and operationalizing similar incubation programs.
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, 2024
One of the key driving forces in tourism concerns the accommodation provided to travellers. When ... more One of the key driving forces in tourism concerns the accommodation provided to travellers. When planning a trip, it is common for voyagers to search for relevant information about accommodation options through websites to decide which one to book. Despite these allowing the evaluation of decisive factors, new avenues of future research in the field are linked to immersive, interactive, and sensory-filled experiences to support travellers in making their choice, provided by emerging digital media such as virtual reality. This paper offers a comprehensive understanding of this field’s development, highlights existing gaps, and proposes paths for future research by systematizing different contributions of digital media to support travellers’ decision process during online accommodation booking. This article provides theoretical and practical contributions to outline novel approaches to empower a new era of smart tourism that enhances travellers’ experiences when searching for accommodations and increases trusting intentions. From the analysis carried out, it was concluded that academic research has only started to gain momentum since 2019 and that topics related to new media are highly relevant to the field but still on a scarce scientific development level. It was also concluded that accommodations preferentially use three technological platforms to advertise their accommodations to users, including traditional websites, mobile websites and virtual reality.
Sustainability
The roles and positive impacts of business incubators, including virtual ones, in promoting entre... more The roles and positive impacts of business incubators, including virtual ones, in promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in multiple industries, and their consequent contributions to fostering sustainable economic growth and social development, have been highly advocated in the extant literature. Nonetheless, several authors highlight the urgent need to further carry out research concerning these structures’ operation models by involving end users, since knowledge related to this phenomenon remains scant. This study sets out to convey the third phase of a broader research and development project following a design science research methodology. Ultimately, this contributes to the field by proposing a new virtual business incubator model with immediate practical applicability. This model was cocreated and validated with 23 incubator managers and startup founders from 15 business incubation centers during focus group sessions and organized into 8 dimensions concluded as fundamental ...
Sustainability
Virtual business incubators have been highlighted for their positive impacts in fostering entrepr... more Virtual business incubators have been highlighted for their positive impacts in fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in several business areas, contributing to sustainable economic growth and social development. However, despite their crucial roles, previous literature emphasizes that research concerning their business models has been largely ignored, and several important issues are still unaddressed. This article aims to contribute to filling this gap and advancing this field by providing the first bibliometric and systematic literature review, as far as the authors know, concerning virtual business incubator models. The main results reveal the following: that academic production is relatively new, fragmented, and develops under a diversity of research paths; the analyzed models (n = 12) have only some dimensions in common and are proposed based on three different perspectives (business organization and management, information and communication systems, and user experience); ...
Sustainability, 2023
The roles and positive impacts of business incubators, including virtual ones, in promoting entre... more The roles and positive impacts of business incubators, including virtual ones, in promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in multiple industries, and their consequent contributions to fostering sustainable economic growth and social development, have been highly advocated in the extant literature. Nonetheless, several authors highlight the urgent need to further carry out research concerning these structures’ operation models by involving end users, since knowledge related to this phenomenon remains scant. This study sets out to convey the third phase of a broader research and development project following a design science research methodology. Ultimately, this contributes to the field by proposing a new virtual business incubator model with immediate practical applicability. This model was cocreated and validated with 23 incubator managers and startup founders from 15 business incubation centers during focus group sessions and organized into 8 dimensions concluded as fundamental in future digital incubation programs. Moreover, this study offers knowledgeable guidelines to support academics, practitioners, organization managers, or other professionals interested in building and running virtual business incubators. The main strengths and weaknesses of the proposed model are also highlighted, and several recommendations are provided to surpass the expected challenging stages of its implementation.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. User and Context Diversity, 2022
Despite the growing concern and several efforts to make museums accessible to visually impaired p... more Despite the growing concern and several efforts to make museums accessible to visually impaired publics, their participation in these institutions is still limited, frustrating their desired inclusion. These visitors often experience multiple barriers in museological environments, and there is a lack of assistive technologies to promote access to exhibits, allow contextual information, and support mobility and orientation inside museum spaces. This paper presents the accessible, interactive, and multisensory exhibition “Mysteries of the Art of Healing”, which is organized in ten moments of an on-site visit to a history and science museum in Portugal, mediated by a set of technological solutions: an interactive 3D layout plan of the museum, seven high-fidelity prototypes of accessible interactives with thirteen 3D replicas, and one mobile application that acts as an assistive navigation guide during the entire visit. For its development, several principles proposed by a group of 72 blind and partially sighted persons to improve their autonomy during visits to museums were taken into account, namely: to provide sensory, intellectual, and physical access throughout the entire museum experience. Evaluation results with 25 visually impaired participants revealed the applicability of the developed solutions within this museum visit context, and global satisfaction results showed to be very positive and correlated to four variables: pleasantness of interacting with digitally fabricated objects, entertainment provided by the ten experiences, interaction with the developed accessible interactives, and pleasantness regarding the handling of manually fabricated replicas.
Procedia Computer Science, 2016
Currently, the museums use different interactive technologies to communicate their exhibitions; h... more Currently, the museums use different interactive technologies to communicate their exhibitions; however, it turns out that in most cases, information is not accessible to all members of the public. In this paper we present the design of a tangible user interface to enhance accessibility in geological exhibitions, specifically for the case of visitors with visual impairments, and we also present the study's results about how to improve the experience of those who visit museums, using this tangible media technology as an exhibitor for samples. The results showed that the interaction with the interface pleased the visitors and that it has application space within geological exhibitions.
Sustainability, 2022
Business incubators have been highlighted as vital contributors and value-creation organizations ... more Business incubators have been highlighted as vital contributors and value-creation organizations to entrepreneurs during their venture developments by offering them multiple resources and specialized support. Notwithstanding, several authors call attention to the significant literature gap concerning research focusing on entrepreneurs’ daily lived incubation experiences to understand their perspectives on incubators. This study aims to explore which aspects are perceived as creating value or limiting the venture development of 16 founders of technology-based startups by interviewing them. Ultimately, it contributes valuable insights about incubation factors that enhance or hinder their overall incubation experience. It suggests that entrepreneurs consider intangible resources and social and relational aspects as the most enriching dimensions of their incubation experiences and concludes with the services they consider to be more important. Moreover, it also reveals negative aspects of the incubation experience, mostly related to the nonregular periodicity of mentoring sessions, training events provided by external entities, and issues while using services provided by external incubators’ partners. Several recommendations for enhancing the incubation experience, managerial implications, and opportunities for further research are discussed.
Handbook of Research on Social Media Applications for the Tourism and Hospitality Sector, 2020
Millions of people with vision impairments worldwide still experience many barriers when visiting... more Millions of people with vision impairments worldwide still experience many barriers when visiting museum exhibitions, given the tenacious ocular centricity of these institutions and the lack of assistive technologies that promote multisensory exhibit design. It is urgent to give priority to issues related to the accessibility of those patrons in museums, as well as their social inclusion, considering that visual impairment is a diverse spectrum. This chapter aims to research blind and visually impaired visitors' experiences in these institutions and presents a proposal of an integrative framework, co-created based on semi-structured interviews conducted with 29 individuals from Portugal. It concluded that sensory, intellectual and physical access must be integrated into the pre-visit, on-site visit and post-visit phases of interaction with cultural institutions, in order to promote a sense of autonomy to visually impaired individuals.
Sustainability
Virtual business incubators have been highlighted for their positive impacts in fostering entrepr... more Virtual business incubators have been highlighted for their positive impacts in fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in several business areas, contributing to sustainable economic growth and social development. However, despite their crucial roles, previous literature emphasizes that research concerning their business models has been largely ignored, and several important issues are still unaddressed. This article aims to contribute to filling this gap and advancing this field by providing the first bibliometric and systematic literature review, as far as the authors know, concerning virtual business incubator models. The main results reveal the following: that academic production is relatively new, fragmented, and develops under a diversity of research paths; the analyzed models (n = 12) have only some dimensions in common and are proposed based on three different perspectives (business organization and management, information and communication systems, and user experience); ...
The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum
People with visual impairments generally experience many barriers when visiting museum exhibition... more People with visual impairments generally experience many barriers when visiting museum exhibitions, given the ocular centricity of these institutions. The situation is worsened by a frequent lack of physical, intellectual and sensory access to exhibits or replicas, increased by the inaccessibility to use ICT-based local or general alternative or augmentative communication resources that can allow different interactions to sighted visitors. Few studies analyze applications of assistive technologies for multisensory exhibit design and relate them with visitors’ experiences. This article aims to contribute to the field of accessibility in museums by providing an overview of the experiences and expectations of blind and visually impaired patrons when visiting those places, based on a literature review. It also surveys assistive technologies used to enhance the experiences of visitors with vision loss while visiting museum exhibitions and spaces. From this, it is highlighted that adopting hybrid technological approaches, following universal design principles and collaborating with blind and visually impaired people, can contribute to integrate access across the continuum of visits.
The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum
People with visual impairments generally experience many barriers when visiting museum exhibition... more People with visual impairments generally experience many barriers when visiting museum exhibitions, given the ocular centricity of these institutions. The situation is worsened by a frequent lack of physical, intellectual and sensory access to exhibits or replicas, increased by the inaccessibility to use ICT-based local or general alternative or augmentative communication resources that can allow different interactions to sighted visitors. Few studies analyze applications of assistive technologies for multisensory exhibit design and relate them with visitors’ experiences. This article aims to contribute to the field of accessibility in museums by providing an overview of the experiences and expectations of blind and visually impaired patrons when visiting those places, based on a literature review. It also surveys assistive technologies used to enhance the experiences of visitors with vision loss while visiting museum exhibitions and spaces. From this, it is highlighted that adopting hybrid technological approaches, following universal design principles and collaborating with blind and visually impaired people, can contribute to integrate access across the continuum of visits.
The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 2021
The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 2021
Museums continue to exert fascination in their visitors. However, the new generation of visitors ... more Museums continue to exert fascination in their visitors. However, the new generation of visitors expects museological experiences that promote their active participation. It is in this context that games and the gamification of such experiences capitalize on experiential learning by experimenting and enacting with in-game embedded artefact surrogates and know-how. In this article, we present four distinct projects that aim to enhance the visitors’ experience in museums and green spaces, and also their effectiveness in informal learning. In the first project, gamification is used in combination with Augmented Reality to provide a more engaging experience in a boat museum. The drive of this experience is the metaphor of the stickers album collection to unleash the relevant information of the key-artefacts of the museum collection. The second and third projects focus on the use of pervasive games, more specifically location-based games, to enhance the visitors’ experience and informal ...
Museums continue to exert fascination in their visitors. However, the new generation of visitors ... more Museums continue to exert fascination in their visitors. However, the new generation of visitors expects museological experiences that promote their active participation. It is in this context that games and the gamification of such experiences capitalize on experiential learning by experimenting and enacting with in-game embedded artefact surrogates and know-how. In this article, we present four distinct projects that aim to enhance the visitors’ experience in museums and green spaces, and also their effectiveness in informal learning. In the first project, gamification is used in combination with Augmented Reality to provide a more engaging experience in a boat museum. The drive of this experience is the metaphor of the stickers album collection to unleash the relevant information of the key-artefacts of the museum collection. The second and third projects focus on the use of pervasive games, more specifically location-based games, to enhance the visitors’ experience and informal ...
O Circuito Acessível Pedras Sabidas, em exposição permanente no Museu das Minas e do Metal – MM G... more O Circuito Acessível Pedras Sabidas, em exposição permanente no Museu das Minas e do Metal – MM Gerdau, é fruto de um convênio internacional de pesquisa entre instituições brasileiras e portuguesas. O projeto foi premiado pelo Programa Ibermuseus e selecionado entre as melhores práticas mundiais para publicação pelo Access Smithsonian. Gerou interfaces interativas, que permitem aos visitantes tocarem amostras minerais da coleção e acionarem conteúdos inclusivos, tais como vídeos com imagens ampliadas, áudios, textos e interpretação em Libras. Neste artigo, são apresentadas as três etapas de desenvolvimento da pesquisa: Protótipo, Piloto e Consolidação. Por fim, temos uma breve avaliação dos impactos da pandemia da COVID-19 na relação entre o público com deficiência e os museus, concluindo com as lições aprendidas ao longo dos cinco anos nos quais este projeto tomou curso.
Handbook of Research on Technological Developments for Cultural Heritage and eTourism ApplicationsChapter: 2Publisher: IGI Global, 2018
With the constant development of digital means of entertainment – that are easily made available ... more With the constant development of digital means of entertainment – that are easily made available to people and, in most cases, can be used anywhere – nowadays, a visit to a museum have to surround publics with unexpected and interactive experiences, in order to capture their attention and make them want to go to these places, in addition to continue to communicate their collections and promote society education. In this regard, it was discussed in this chapter the actual panorama of interactive technologies used in museums exhibitions worldwide, and there are discussed how these institutions are designing digital installations and utilizing virtual media to enhance the visitors' experience, promoting positive relations between them and their publics. The main conclusion and reflection of the chapter is based on how this new era of technology is allowing increasing physical, cognitive and sensory accessibility, and transforms this kind of experience for disabled publics.
Procedia Computer Science, 2024
Research on business incubators has been advocating their impacts in promoting industry innovatio... more Research on business incubators has been advocating their impacts in promoting industry innovation, economic growth, fostering entrepreneurship, and social development. However, the literature gap concerning business incubator models remains, among them how to operationalize digital ones, and the knowledge about management practices informed by primary incubators’ stakeholders is also scant. Thus, this study aims to convey the fourth phase of a research project following a design science research methodology. It relied on the participation of 39 incubator managers and startup founders in focus groups and interview sessions to co-design a future digital incubation program. It informs a set of practical and knowledgeable guidelines for developing, running, and managing digital business incubators, organized on an eight-dimension proposed framework to assist academics and organization professionals interested in creating and operationalizing similar incubation programs.
Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, 2024
One of the key driving forces in tourism concerns the accommodation provided to travellers. When ... more One of the key driving forces in tourism concerns the accommodation provided to travellers. When planning a trip, it is common for voyagers to search for relevant information about accommodation options through websites to decide which one to book. Despite these allowing the evaluation of decisive factors, new avenues of future research in the field are linked to immersive, interactive, and sensory-filled experiences to support travellers in making their choice, provided by emerging digital media such as virtual reality. This paper offers a comprehensive understanding of this field’s development, highlights existing gaps, and proposes paths for future research by systematizing different contributions of digital media to support travellers’ decision process during online accommodation booking. This article provides theoretical and practical contributions to outline novel approaches to empower a new era of smart tourism that enhances travellers’ experiences when searching for accommodations and increases trusting intentions. From the analysis carried out, it was concluded that academic research has only started to gain momentum since 2019 and that topics related to new media are highly relevant to the field but still on a scarce scientific development level. It was also concluded that accommodations preferentially use three technological platforms to advertise their accommodations to users, including traditional websites, mobile websites and virtual reality.
Sustainability
The roles and positive impacts of business incubators, including virtual ones, in promoting entre... more The roles and positive impacts of business incubators, including virtual ones, in promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in multiple industries, and their consequent contributions to fostering sustainable economic growth and social development, have been highly advocated in the extant literature. Nonetheless, several authors highlight the urgent need to further carry out research concerning these structures’ operation models by involving end users, since knowledge related to this phenomenon remains scant. This study sets out to convey the third phase of a broader research and development project following a design science research methodology. Ultimately, this contributes to the field by proposing a new virtual business incubator model with immediate practical applicability. This model was cocreated and validated with 23 incubator managers and startup founders from 15 business incubation centers during focus group sessions and organized into 8 dimensions concluded as fundamental ...
Sustainability
Virtual business incubators have been highlighted for their positive impacts in fostering entrepr... more Virtual business incubators have been highlighted for their positive impacts in fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in several business areas, contributing to sustainable economic growth and social development. However, despite their crucial roles, previous literature emphasizes that research concerning their business models has been largely ignored, and several important issues are still unaddressed. This article aims to contribute to filling this gap and advancing this field by providing the first bibliometric and systematic literature review, as far as the authors know, concerning virtual business incubator models. The main results reveal the following: that academic production is relatively new, fragmented, and develops under a diversity of research paths; the analyzed models (n = 12) have only some dimensions in common and are proposed based on three different perspectives (business organization and management, information and communication systems, and user experience); ...
Sustainability, 2023
The roles and positive impacts of business incubators, including virtual ones, in promoting entre... more The roles and positive impacts of business incubators, including virtual ones, in promoting entrepreneurship and innovation in multiple industries, and their consequent contributions to fostering sustainable economic growth and social development, have been highly advocated in the extant literature. Nonetheless, several authors highlight the urgent need to further carry out research concerning these structures’ operation models by involving end users, since knowledge related to this phenomenon remains scant. This study sets out to convey the third phase of a broader research and development project following a design science research methodology. Ultimately, this contributes to the field by proposing a new virtual business incubator model with immediate practical applicability. This model was cocreated and validated with 23 incubator managers and startup founders from 15 business incubation centers during focus group sessions and organized into 8 dimensions concluded as fundamental in future digital incubation programs. Moreover, this study offers knowledgeable guidelines to support academics, practitioners, organization managers, or other professionals interested in building and running virtual business incubators. The main strengths and weaknesses of the proposed model are also highlighted, and several recommendations are provided to surpass the expected challenging stages of its implementation.
Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. User and Context Diversity, 2022
Despite the growing concern and several efforts to make museums accessible to visually impaired p... more Despite the growing concern and several efforts to make museums accessible to visually impaired publics, their participation in these institutions is still limited, frustrating their desired inclusion. These visitors often experience multiple barriers in museological environments, and there is a lack of assistive technologies to promote access to exhibits, allow contextual information, and support mobility and orientation inside museum spaces. This paper presents the accessible, interactive, and multisensory exhibition “Mysteries of the Art of Healing”, which is organized in ten moments of an on-site visit to a history and science museum in Portugal, mediated by a set of technological solutions: an interactive 3D layout plan of the museum, seven high-fidelity prototypes of accessible interactives with thirteen 3D replicas, and one mobile application that acts as an assistive navigation guide during the entire visit. For its development, several principles proposed by a group of 72 blind and partially sighted persons to improve their autonomy during visits to museums were taken into account, namely: to provide sensory, intellectual, and physical access throughout the entire museum experience. Evaluation results with 25 visually impaired participants revealed the applicability of the developed solutions within this museum visit context, and global satisfaction results showed to be very positive and correlated to four variables: pleasantness of interacting with digitally fabricated objects, entertainment provided by the ten experiences, interaction with the developed accessible interactives, and pleasantness regarding the handling of manually fabricated replicas.
Procedia Computer Science, 2016
Currently, the museums use different interactive technologies to communicate their exhibitions; h... more Currently, the museums use different interactive technologies to communicate their exhibitions; however, it turns out that in most cases, information is not accessible to all members of the public. In this paper we present the design of a tangible user interface to enhance accessibility in geological exhibitions, specifically for the case of visitors with visual impairments, and we also present the study's results about how to improve the experience of those who visit museums, using this tangible media technology as an exhibitor for samples. The results showed that the interaction with the interface pleased the visitors and that it has application space within geological exhibitions.
Sustainability, 2022
Business incubators have been highlighted as vital contributors and value-creation organizations ... more Business incubators have been highlighted as vital contributors and value-creation organizations to entrepreneurs during their venture developments by offering them multiple resources and specialized support. Notwithstanding, several authors call attention to the significant literature gap concerning research focusing on entrepreneurs’ daily lived incubation experiences to understand their perspectives on incubators. This study aims to explore which aspects are perceived as creating value or limiting the venture development of 16 founders of technology-based startups by interviewing them. Ultimately, it contributes valuable insights about incubation factors that enhance or hinder their overall incubation experience. It suggests that entrepreneurs consider intangible resources and social and relational aspects as the most enriching dimensions of their incubation experiences and concludes with the services they consider to be more important. Moreover, it also reveals negative aspects of the incubation experience, mostly related to the nonregular periodicity of mentoring sessions, training events provided by external entities, and issues while using services provided by external incubators’ partners. Several recommendations for enhancing the incubation experience, managerial implications, and opportunities for further research are discussed.
Handbook of Research on Social Media Applications for the Tourism and Hospitality Sector, 2020
Millions of people with vision impairments worldwide still experience many barriers when visiting... more Millions of people with vision impairments worldwide still experience many barriers when visiting museum exhibitions, given the tenacious ocular centricity of these institutions and the lack of assistive technologies that promote multisensory exhibit design. It is urgent to give priority to issues related to the accessibility of those patrons in museums, as well as their social inclusion, considering that visual impairment is a diverse spectrum. This chapter aims to research blind and visually impaired visitors' experiences in these institutions and presents a proposal of an integrative framework, co-created based on semi-structured interviews conducted with 29 individuals from Portugal. It concluded that sensory, intellectual and physical access must be integrated into the pre-visit, on-site visit and post-visit phases of interaction with cultural institutions, in order to promote a sense of autonomy to visually impaired individuals.
Sustainability
Virtual business incubators have been highlighted for their positive impacts in fostering entrepr... more Virtual business incubators have been highlighted for their positive impacts in fostering entrepreneurship and innovation in several business areas, contributing to sustainable economic growth and social development. However, despite their crucial roles, previous literature emphasizes that research concerning their business models has been largely ignored, and several important issues are still unaddressed. This article aims to contribute to filling this gap and advancing this field by providing the first bibliometric and systematic literature review, as far as the authors know, concerning virtual business incubator models. The main results reveal the following: that academic production is relatively new, fragmented, and develops under a diversity of research paths; the analyzed models (n = 12) have only some dimensions in common and are proposed based on three different perspectives (business organization and management, information and communication systems, and user experience); ...
The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum
People with visual impairments generally experience many barriers when visiting museum exhibition... more People with visual impairments generally experience many barriers when visiting museum exhibitions, given the ocular centricity of these institutions. The situation is worsened by a frequent lack of physical, intellectual and sensory access to exhibits or replicas, increased by the inaccessibility to use ICT-based local or general alternative or augmentative communication resources that can allow different interactions to sighted visitors. Few studies analyze applications of assistive technologies for multisensory exhibit design and relate them with visitors’ experiences. This article aims to contribute to the field of accessibility in museums by providing an overview of the experiences and expectations of blind and visually impaired patrons when visiting those places, based on a literature review. It also surveys assistive technologies used to enhance the experiences of visitors with vision loss while visiting museum exhibitions and spaces. From this, it is highlighted that adopting hybrid technological approaches, following universal design principles and collaborating with blind and visually impaired people, can contribute to integrate access across the continuum of visits.
The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum
People with visual impairments generally experience many barriers when visiting museum exhibition... more People with visual impairments generally experience many barriers when visiting museum exhibitions, given the ocular centricity of these institutions. The situation is worsened by a frequent lack of physical, intellectual and sensory access to exhibits or replicas, increased by the inaccessibility to use ICT-based local or general alternative or augmentative communication resources that can allow different interactions to sighted visitors. Few studies analyze applications of assistive technologies for multisensory exhibit design and relate them with visitors’ experiences. This article aims to contribute to the field of accessibility in museums by providing an overview of the experiences and expectations of blind and visually impaired patrons when visiting those places, based on a literature review. It also surveys assistive technologies used to enhance the experiences of visitors with vision loss while visiting museum exhibitions and spaces. From this, it is highlighted that adopting hybrid technological approaches, following universal design principles and collaborating with blind and visually impaired people, can contribute to integrate access across the continuum of visits.
The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 2021
The International Journal of the Inclusive Museum, 2021
Museums continue to exert fascination in their visitors. However, the new generation of visitors ... more Museums continue to exert fascination in their visitors. However, the new generation of visitors expects museological experiences that promote their active participation. It is in this context that games and the gamification of such experiences capitalize on experiential learning by experimenting and enacting with in-game embedded artefact surrogates and know-how. In this article, we present four distinct projects that aim to enhance the visitors’ experience in museums and green spaces, and also their effectiveness in informal learning. In the first project, gamification is used in combination with Augmented Reality to provide a more engaging experience in a boat museum. The drive of this experience is the metaphor of the stickers album collection to unleash the relevant information of the key-artefacts of the museum collection. The second and third projects focus on the use of pervasive games, more specifically location-based games, to enhance the visitors’ experience and informal ...
Museums continue to exert fascination in their visitors. However, the new generation of visitors ... more Museums continue to exert fascination in their visitors. However, the new generation of visitors expects museological experiences that promote their active participation. It is in this context that games and the gamification of such experiences capitalize on experiential learning by experimenting and enacting with in-game embedded artefact surrogates and know-how. In this article, we present four distinct projects that aim to enhance the visitors’ experience in museums and green spaces, and also their effectiveness in informal learning. In the first project, gamification is used in combination with Augmented Reality to provide a more engaging experience in a boat museum. The drive of this experience is the metaphor of the stickers album collection to unleash the relevant information of the key-artefacts of the museum collection. The second and third projects focus on the use of pervasive games, more specifically location-based games, to enhance the visitors’ experience and informal ...
O Circuito Acessível Pedras Sabidas, em exposição permanente no Museu das Minas e do Metal – MM G... more O Circuito Acessível Pedras Sabidas, em exposição permanente no Museu das Minas e do Metal – MM Gerdau, é fruto de um convênio internacional de pesquisa entre instituições brasileiras e portuguesas. O projeto foi premiado pelo Programa Ibermuseus e selecionado entre as melhores práticas mundiais para publicação pelo Access Smithsonian. Gerou interfaces interativas, que permitem aos visitantes tocarem amostras minerais da coleção e acionarem conteúdos inclusivos, tais como vídeos com imagens ampliadas, áudios, textos e interpretação em Libras. Neste artigo, são apresentadas as três etapas de desenvolvimento da pesquisa: Protótipo, Piloto e Consolidação. Por fim, temos uma breve avaliação dos impactos da pandemia da COVID-19 na relação entre o público com deficiência e os museus, concluindo com as lições aprendidas ao longo dos cinco anos nos quais este projeto tomou curso.
Handbook of Research on Technological Developments for Cultural Heritage and eTourism Applications, 2018
With the constant development of digital means of entertainment – that are easily made available ... more With the constant development of digital means of entertainment – that are easily made available to people and, in most cases, can be used anywhere – nowadays, a visit to a museum have to surround publics with unexpected and interactive experiences, in order to capture their attention and make them want to go to these places, in addition to continue to communicate their collections and promote society education. In this regard, it was discussed in this chapter the actual panorama of interactive technologies used in museums exhibitions worldwide, and there are discussed how these institutions are designing digital installations and utilizing virtual media to enhance the visitors' experience, promoting positive relations between them and their publics. The main conclusion and reflection of the chapter is based on how this new era of technology is allowing increasing physical, cognitive and sensory accessibility, and transforms this kind of experience for disabled publics.