Leisure

Talking Images: museums, galleries and heritage sites

Summary: Information on the Talking Images project, publications, conference and future work.

• What is Talking Images?
• Talking Image publications
• Talking Images Conference
• Commissioning an accessible audio guide
• Audio guide technology
• Access to multimedia guides
• Future work

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What is Talking Images?

Talking Images is a project to improve access to museums, galleries and heritage sites for people with sight problems. The project has involved blind and partially sighted people in extensive consultation in order to develop guidelines on improving access.

This page contains information on the project to date and is also the place where updates are placed.

Talking Images has been a collaboration between RNIB and Vocaleyes, funded by Museums Libraries Archives (MLA) and Arts Council England and supported by English Heritage and Museums and Galleries Disability Association (MAGDA, website currently under development).

Talking Image publications

As a result of the project two publications, the Talking Images Guide and Talking Images Research have been published. These publications are available from our online shop to purchase in clear print, braille and tape formats. They are also available to download below in PDF and word formats:

• Talking Images Guide (Word, 243 KB)
• Talking Images Guide (PDF, 1540 KB)
• Talking Images Research (Word, 209 KB)
• Talking Images Research (PDF, 1420 KB)

A Talking Images summary document (word, 31 KB), gives key points from the reports and tells you where to find further detail in the Talking Images publications.

Vocaleyes, our partners in the project, have produced a report on the case studies developed as part of Talking Images.

Talking Images Conference

In May 2003, the Talking Images Conference was held at Eltham Palace in London. The conference attracted 200 delegates from across the UK and as far away as the US, Australia and the Netherlands.

For more information on the event, speakers, workshops and study visits, download a report on the Talking Images conference (Word 99KB).

Commissioning an accessible audio guide

The Talking Images partners have developed guidance for commissioning an accessible audio guide (Word 39KB).

This paper is aimed at venues thinking about developing an audio guide and contains information about what to incorporate into a brief to ensure accessibility.

Audio guide technology

As part of the original Talking Images research, a set of general principals for developing accessible audio guide handsets (Word 76KB) was produced.

Access to multimedia guides

RNIB have recently published guidance on making handheld multimedia guides accessible to blind and partially sighted people. These guides, which often use PDA (personal digital assistant) technology, can be inaccessible unless access is considered at the start of the development. Download making PDA guides accessible for blind and partially sighted people (Word, 97 KB)

Future work

The Talking Images partners continue to discuss ways in which they can work to help improve access for blind and partially sighted people to museum, galleries and heritage sites. If you have any comments please email audiodescription@rnib.org.uk

Content author: talkingimages@rnib.org.uk

Last updated: 06/03/2008 15:41