heritage Article Accessibility, Natural User Interfaces and Interactions in Museums: The IntARSI Project Eva Pietroni 1, *, Alfonsina Pagano 1 , Luigi Biocca 1 and Giacomo Frassineti 2   Citation: Pietroni, E.; Pagano, A.; Biocca, L.; Frassineti, G. Accessibility, Natural User Interfaces and Interactions in Museums: The IntARSI Project. Heritage 2021, 4, 567–584. https://doi.org/10.3390/ heritage4020034 Academic Editor: Nicola Masini Received: 26 January 2021 Accepted: 1 April 2021 Published: 4 April 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 CNR ISPC, Reseacrh Area Rome 1, via Salaria km 29,300, 00015 Monterotondo, Italy; alfonsina.pagano@ispc.cnr.it (A.P.); luigi.biocca@cnr.it (L.B.) 2 Venue in Rome, IULM University, via Marco Minghetti 17, 00187 Rome, Italy; giacomo.frassineti@gmail.com * Correspondence: eva.pietroni@cnr.it; Tel.: +39-06-90672349 Abstract: In a museum context, people have specific needs in terms of physical, cognitive, and social accessibility that cannot be ignored. Therefore, we need to find a way to make art and culture accessible to them through the aid of Universal Design principles, advanced technologies, and suitable interfaces and contents. Integration of such factors is a priority of the Museums General Direction of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, within the wider strategy of museum exploitation. In accordance with this issue, the IntARSI project, publicly funded, consists of a pre-evaluation and a report of technical specifications for a new concept of museology applied to the new Museum of Civilization in Rome (MuCIV). It relates to planning of multimedia, virtual, and mixed reality applications based on the concept of “augmented” and multisensory experience, innovative tangible user interfaces, and storytelling techniques. An inclusive approach is applied, taking into account the needs and attitudes of a wide audience with different ages, cultural interests, skills, and expectations, as well as cognitive and physical abilities. Keywords: technologies for museums; accessibility; universal design; natural interaction interfaces; tangible user interfaces; art and culture 1. Introduction: Scope of the Action and General Context in Which It Has Been Started 1.1. Premises From more than twenty years of research, the Virtual Heritage Lab (VHLab) of the Italian National Research Council, Institute of Heritage Science (CNR ISPC) has been involved in shaping, developing, and implementing multifaceted virtual museum environ- ments through technological installations, communicative strategies, and layout design; the general aim has always been to enhance cultural contents and storytelling to educate and emotionally involve museum visitors. Recently, the VHLab team has developed a Universal Design (UD)–oriented strategy to shape technology, interfaces, and contents, taking into account a larger potential audience of visitors with differentiated needs and expectations. The Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage (MIBACT) has established a long-term strategy [1] for the revitalization of the national museums’ network and exploitation of various cultural contexts for the benefit of a wider audience. Within this strategy, some relevant museums were funded to redesign their spaces’ layout, including digital and technical installations, in order to make exhibits more attractive to an extended audience. One of the museums that took advantage of such a renovation is the Museum of Civilization in Rome (MuCIV). Recently it has been opened to the public after a long process of aggregation of four previous institutions (Early Middle Ages Museum, Popular Arts and Traditions Museum, Ethnographic Museum, Eastern Art Museum). The new museum is very rich in content, but unfortunately it is located in a marginal tourist area of Rome with plenty of offices rather than tourist attractions, but with great potentialities. The museum is defining new promotional strategies aimed at reaching a new public: not a mass one, Heritage 2021, 4, 567–584. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage4020034 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/heritage