Interactive Sensory Objects Developed for and by People with Learning Disabilities

Abstract

This paper describes a project that aims to help improve the accessibility of museums and heritage sites by creating a series of interactive, multisensory objects. The objects will be developed collaboratively by artists, technologists, people with an interest in heritage sites, and people with disabilities and their carers in a series of sensory art and electronics workshops. The workshops and the sensory objects will explore aspects of physicality and how to appeal to the entire range of senses for both control and feedback. In addition to creating new interactive objects, the project aims to learn more about how to engage people with disabilities as participant researchers in designing art objects, and how to make heritage sites more accessible generally.