Design for All in multimedia guides for museums Belén Ruiz * , José Luis Pajares, Francisco Utray, Lourdes Moreno Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spanish Centre of Captioning and Audio Description (CESyA), Avda. Universidad 30, 28911 Leganés, Madrid, Spain article info Article history: Available online 3 November 2010 Keywords: Mobile media Design for All Museums Cultural heritage Interactive guides abstract The Design for All principles define the characteristics which a device should possess in order for it be utilised by every type of user, independent of his or her sensory disabilities or technological competency. These principles are realised in the current work as an integrative tool with which to facilitate universal access to museums via multimedia and portable guides, making access available to all. Based on these principles, this article describes the main findings of the design and use of the MGA (Multimedia Guides for All) approach proposed in this paper. This approach involves a series of recommendations for the selection, application, preparation of content, and maintenance of this type of computerized device, in order to achieve these principles. Firstly, a comparative analysis of the principal types of electronic guides available in museums which incorporate accessibility criteria is provided. Subsequently, a real case study case is presented which conforms to the MGA approach. The MGA approach can be applied to other domains, which should be explored in further research. The conclusions in this article have been drawn from two R&D projects financed by the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Science and Technology supported by the EC FEDER R&D Program. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Different electronic guides with sign language videos and audio descriptions are beginning to be introduced in museums (Santoro, Paternò, Ricci, & Leporini, 2007; Tellis, 2004), with the aim of allowing disabled visitors to explore them in a more independent and adaptable way, encouraging the inclusion of citizenship in the information society (Kaitavuori, 2008; Lytras, Damiani, & Ordóñez de Pablos, 2008; Lytras & Garcia, 2008; Lytras & Ordóñez de Pablos, 2007, 2009; Ordóñez de Pablos, 2002; Rodriguez Pérez & Ordóñez de Pablos, 2003). Furthermore, many museums have set up initiatives to create portable devices which make museum visits accessible to visitors with distinct types of needs. These devices are of a diverse nature and they enrich the visitor’s experience, some of which will be mentioned in the current work. The MGA (Multimedia Guides for All) approach is designed to provide universal access to mobile contents by including sufficient configuration and adaptation features, enabling people with or without disabilities to make equal use of them. As a result of the development of these features, the applications in museums have the potential of becoming an essential tool in museographics. Section 2 discusses museographics in relation to the use of mul- timedia guides. The approach, MGA is demonstrated in Section 3 and compared with similar devices. Section 4 describes the case study, GVAM (Spanish acronym of Accessible Virtual Accessibility Museum Guides). Finally, some conclusions and areas for future re- search are outlined in Sections 5 and 6. 2. Museographics and virtual guides Museography is the science that studies the construction of museums, as the exhibition holds very special importance as a sys- tem for presenting pieces, as well as the arrangement of the pieces for presentation to the public (Salas, 1980). This science involves the application of the museological requirements of the project, taking into account the architecture, the collection, the financial and human resources, and other factors limiting ‘‘how” the mu- seum is presented to its visitors. In this context, traditional human guides are a resource in short supply. They are employees who are experts in the content and narration of the pieces on display, their social or human historical context. They give life and vigour to the museum and even entertain visitors, making their visits stimulat- ing rather than boring, and of course, educational, given that they are capable of responding to any situation, question, type of audi- ence, emergency, among other elements. This requirement for training in content, social skills, language, and other aspects and the growing number of ever-increasingly demanding visitors implies that museums must develop educa- tional resources to complement the services of this traditional guide. 0747-5632/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.07.044 * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: bruiz@inf.uc3m.es (B. Ruiz), jpajares@cesya.es (J.L. Pajares), futray@hum.uc3m.es (F. Utray), lmoreno@inf.uc3m.es (L. Moreno). Computers in Human Behavior 27 (2011) 1408–1415 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh