 I'm going to say good to you all right. Welcome we will be starting in about 60 seconds. Welcome and thank you so much for joining us we will be getting started in about 30 seconds. Welcome thank you for joining us we will be starting in about 10 seconds. Okay it's time to get started welcome everyone I'm Cliff Lynch the director of CNI. You've arrived at the last of our project briefings for the second week of our virtual conference and this Friday we will be having a wonderful talk from one of the great clear postdoctoral fellows who is at the the Schomburg Center at the New York Public Library Rebecca Beak and she's going to give us a presentation on designing inclusive digital exhibitions which is something that has become a very important activity for libraries especially for libraries that are rich with special collections. She'll take questions at the end of her presentation. Diane Goldenberg Hart will moderate those you will see at the bottom of your screen there is a Q&A button and you can use that to enter questions at any time and Diane will sort through those and pass them to Rebecca when she takes questions and answers. So with that let me just once again welcome you say please join us for more project briefing sessions next week and over to you Rebecca. All right thank you Dave. Hello everyone and just kind of thank you for joining us today and joining me just to listen to me. So this project is an ongoing project and I've been working only for a couple of let's say months now. So what the focus is as Dave said I'm a clear postdoctoral fellow at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. So and then because we are a special setting my one of my job is to see like sort how the the connection that we have and see what is it that we can present. And then my background is actually in learning design and technology. I have a door degree in learning design technology and comparative international education. So one thing that I've always been interested in is how do we design all my research has been on how do we design learning environments that are inclusive. So based on that I started thinking about I'm putting together an exhibition how do I make sure that this exhibition is inclusive to all patrons or visitors that are going to you know come and see the exhibition because Schomburg is definitely a very popular place and they are kind of like everything that's happening there is really well attended. So with that in mind I started thinking researching how what does it mean designing an inclusive digital exhibition. So my own definition and I know most of you know that you know inclusivity has been accessibility actually the word that usually used has been it has been a kind of a big has received a big push within design and higher education learning environments but also libraries and Schomburg being a special place I was like how do we do that. So my own understanding of designing an inclusive digital exhibition is about designing an exhibition using digital platforms that would be inclusive of the blind and low deaf and hard of hearing patrons or visitors. So what do I mean by that I mean by that when I'm designing something I have to make sure that the experiences that I want somebody who sees to have I want to make sure that the person who is blind low vision has low vision who's deaf or hard of hearing can definitely have the same experience. So here's how I think I thought about the process I'm sharing that with you and I'm definitely be happy to you know hear what you have to say about it. So when I think about designing that inclusive learning design the inclusive digital exhibition I'm thinking about the process so what why I use the process because it's not it's something that's kind of you know going through a iteration where it's not like step one, step two, step three, step four but it's different something that you go back and forth so you come you go to it and you come back to it again. So what it means in general is that you have to make inclusivity or accessibility but I'm using inclusivity here part in the part of the digital exhibition design. So what do I mean do I what does it doesn't mean it just means that you have to understand your digital environment you have to know what are the affordances like what can you do what like I'm at the show but what's in that I have there what are the affordances what can I or can I do and how can I use the available they are available to create a desirable inclusive digital environment or design exhibition because I have something that I have in mind and the the facility the the Schomburg media library has something that's already set so how do I make sure that what I have in mind how can I use it to create that digital inclusive exhibition. So the next thing that I added to the process as well how now I have to choose the items that I want to use for the exhibition I have to think about digital technologies available for inclusive design that I can use again keeping in mind that I have to make sure that I understand my digital environment that's already available at the Schomburg or Amman location and what experience do I want for all visitors why what what is it I want them to share what is it I want them to learn what is it I wanted to take away it has to be you know the same for the people who have who can see but also for the people who are hard of hearing or have other disabilities. So with that in mind and I say to myself I'm saying that inclusive exhibitions just kind of require a shift of paradigm so I have to shift your way of thinking about exhibition about digital exhibition because usually we just think about why is that the visual people can do. So that shift in mind happened and it brings me now to my case at the Schomburg that I'm going to share with you right now. So the Schomburg as you know is like we often see that that's where black history is every single day like you don't have a month for a black so we're definitely focusing on the black black history black experiences worldwide so you have things about Africa you have things about items collections about Africa the black in the diaspora almost everywhere and and because it's kind of key and located Harlem is really part of the community is really something that's uh owned by the is an entity on his own right so it's kind of something that's owned by the community and it's just that partnership is there and we're with the collection so when I started for the collections my theme what I want I've been working on is uh designing um presenting actually the strategy use of cardivism by black people in the 19th century so the whole idea behind the cardivism was that cardivism were kind of a small portrait card that people were using in the 19th century it came from Europe and then became popular in the US in the 19th century people were using to kind of share past information but also uh uh keep memories but propaganda as well so they're using the various way but I was focusing now on the uh black people how are they using that those categories and why is it that they were trying to show through the cardivism and how can we read that so for somebody who's who can see who doesn't have any kind of visual impairment so it's easier for you if I put the cardivism together because you can see then you can read and how uh see the postures the movements the the the what the they are the dressing code that the people were using those black people were using but how do I make sure now that uh somebody who's black hard of hearing can definitely you know uh see what somebody who is um who can see will have so and that will bring you back and if you remember again that will bring you back to what I was saying when I was saying that paradigm shift what type of experience what is it I have available in my digital environment at the Schomburg so here is how the Schomburg digital environment looks like so we have uh when we have our digital exhibition so we call the space the media gallery so you have a video wall where uh I'm going to show that in the next slide you have four touch screens and then with the first touch screens what you have that the video wall what can play you have slideshow that can play but you also have our videos right that can play the next thing that we have with the yeah the video okay now what you have the touch screen you have four touch screens so and all of us know that when you have a touch screen that you have to touch and for it to play so the touch screen of course you can have a place for you too you can have they also have on the side a headset that you have to press for you to be able to listen to what has been playing on this okay you have a place where you have a section that they call gallery here where you have you can add a collection of pictures and put it all of that together so now on the study now my digital environment and those are the affordances that that can you know that it gives me so how do I now use these affordances when I'm trying to target the somebody who's blind or low vision when I'm trying to target somebody who's hard of hearing right who's deaf or hard of hearing so those are kind of the challenges that I started thinking about but also trying to kind of handle them in a way that is going to make it a worth a worthy experience not only for all the patrons that are visiting the place so here's how I started approaching all of this without that because I know that you know the the video all how can we see videos I say okay I definitely need to create videos with audio recordings I definitely need to create long text description of images of my cdv because remember again I'm using the card of visits right so if you and I can see then we can see how people were you know the position the movement they're making the position the dress that they were having so I need to create that so how do I make sure that I describe the what I see to somebody who cannot see and the next thing I say provide audio recording of the cdv's and descriptions so okay so now providing the short history because you know with every exhibition you have the right talk you have that introduction so I have to make sure that somebody who cannot see as well can definitely read that but somebody who's also deaf I have to make sure that you know the writings I kind of know uh alone vision actually have to make sure that the writings is written clear clearly enough that he can also see no matter uh uh in respect of the location the position that he takes within the media gallery uh who the next thing I started thinking about also I definitely need to create a narrative because you remember for exhibitions you have you usually have the labels but you also have the the normal exhibition they also have an introduction kind of giving the history so definitely creating narratives so that somebody who cannot see can definitely follow through as someone who sees find the knowledge or a voice over so finding that you need to have somebody who has kind of a voice that some will be definitely easy to hear and listen to so those are but also designing a tactile map of the building because again the somber as you saw what I said when people come in how they will make sure that they can definitely get into the place so giving them the tactile map so that they can find a way into uh the media gallery lab the media uh uh gallery who would not love all right so those are kind of the challenges but also the ways that I've started addressing those challenges but also with the touch screen one thing I thought about was to create uh how am I going to make videos that people can definitely play on all the um the screen so so far because of the COVID-19 of course we're not able to put that in place but this is definitely a work in progress and because uh for the year I'm going to have uh my for the my postdoctoral uh fellowship I'm going to have the opportunity to definitely design more uh exhibitions so I'm hoping that uh once I have this pilot set up and then learn from that then make it a kind of a practice that you know as libraries as you know a research institution or with special collections we never want to design something we want to think about people who have people of all abilities in a sense so with that I would say thank you and I'm open to the questions now thank you Rebecca uh that was really very interesting to think about making these materials um more accessible and available to people who might not be able to experience them in the way that we would imagine would be um most available for those exhibit experiences we really appreciate you coming to talk to us about that a lot to think about um I'm Diane Goldenberg Hart with CNI welcome everyone and thank you so much for joining us today for this really interesting webinar um I'd like to open the floor for questions now if you have any questions for Rebecca please feel free to type them in the Q&A box which at the bottom of your screen you should see a Q&A icon you just click on that you can type your questions in um you can also type them into the chat if you would like we'll be monitoring those there and while we are giving you a moment to think about what what questions Rebecca has raised with her presentation let me just take a moment to remind you about um our ongoing uh virtual uh meeting CNI's spring 2020 virtual meeting I've pasted into the chat box there a um URL which will take you directly to the schedule for the rest of the webinars which will be ongoing through the end of May so there's a lot to choose from and we hope that you'll come back and attend some more of of the great offerings we have planned for you um while we're waiting for some questions from the audience to come in Rebecca if I may I something occurred to me while you were speaking that I've always wondered about in terms of trying to make um special collections more accessible especially to the visually impaired you know there's something so special about just viewing archival material uh that goes beyond the the the text that you might read uh on a on a on a letter or a a visiting card or an artifact of that kind just seeing the material seeing how it's presented you noticing the discoloration of the paper and which gives me the clue into its age how can you translate that sort of non-verbal non-textual information in an inclusive environment that that's definitely a great question and uh when I was actually working on the project one thing that because I'm working with the images so how do I make sure that people can like somebody who cannot see can see so that's where uh with them how do they call now the foundation for the blind they have a poster that they call long text form description of everything that you see so what does that mean it doesn't mean that actually I'm you you they have training that they provide that but what it does mean is that I'm going to type in describe what I see on that let's say printed material whatever I see in such a way that the person who does not see when he listens to what I'm describing can have a sense of what I'm seeing so that that's the way to approach that so you have short form text description where you will see it out on every website now when they see an image you will see that as a lady position like but when it's kind of long long form text description one thing I did with my uh see a card to visit for example was when you have a lady sitting I would describe the dress code like the dress how she was dressed the position and so it gives them some kind of sense of what is it that I'm I'm seeing I see okay that makes a lot of sense yeah interesting thank you thanks so much I appreciate that and it looks like we have a question now let me go ahead and read that to you Rebecca yeah it sounds like this exhibit will be mounted in the digital exhibit room at the Schomburg so was designed to use the particular equipment there as you designed the exhibit did you find that you wished you had additional types of equipment that would give more options in inclusive design and thank you for a wonderful presentation he says thank you so much oh absolutely thank you for your question yeah and that's what I was saying you know I started to think about okay you know what I need to use what I have available so kind of clear that because I wish and I was saying I was saying so one thing what did I do but though which was good was that when I started talking to them about that they were like oh we never thought about this you know the low the blind and now we have to think about it so um what it is that we have they have a provider who is designing their interactive environment so I have to set a meeting with them and say hey guys you guys they're like we did not think about it so we are going to the next phase is going to for us to go into designing of the uh interactive place so that we have they when they're designing coding whatever they have these people in mind and they were like we didn't did not think about this and uh everybody this is the time so yes I wished I was because like when you walk into the room there are other uh other libraries actually that are doing that there's kind of some kind of sensor because when you walk in the room because it's designed only for the visual people who can see so you have to go on the touch screens and press to be able to play so now but if we have that in mind they will have a sensor that when somebody comes in it senses him in front of the screen and it can automatically play so that's why because of what I had I had to create videos in a sense so that they cannot imagine because the person who is blind would not know where to press on the top screen so you have to play automatically so yes absolutely I wish I had but that's uh something that the showman is definitely going to look at and I'm going to once all of this is over the next setting a meeting with the the design the company that designed the the place for us to bring that now and to uh you know have that into the design of the G style uh media yeah so interesting wow well lots of of uh neat stuff coming down the pike at the Schomburg it sounds like uh look forward to seeing that um yeah that exhibit well thank you so much Rebecca uh it looks like we don't have any more questions right now um have you got any closing thoughts before we uh the closing thoughts is just because I feel like this uh an emerging field in a sense and specifically for the digital uh exhibition so one thing I'm planning to do is conducting a study definitely after this one is that with the people who are going to come in and listen to them say hey why is that we did it wrong why does that we did it right with the specific uh focus group and say what is that we did wrong and coming up with hopefully principles of how do you design you know uh uh how do you put together digital exhibition that's going to be used inclusive uh for all people with all abilities so I think that's the next uh you know the next step next phase in this process so hopefully I hope we all stay well and safe and then we'll be able to go back to uh maybe not normalcy but go back to you know uh because I don't think that everything's going to be the same again but uh going back to kind of know doing what we love and and enjoy doing indeed thank you guys thank you for being here yeah thank you so much for joining us for giving us this great talk uh I am hearing virtual applause coming down the internet too thank you oh feel free to contact me by the way my uh contact my email is there uh my uh twitter account is there so feel free to contact me I would love actually to hear because uh it's definitely good to have a group of people with who you know you think for all of this so definitely that'd be great all right thank you everyone so much for joining us have a wonderful talk thank you thank you take care everyone you will bye bye bye