"Cultural Timișoara - European city, city of everyone"

The Project

The #Timișoara4All project originated from the desire to improve the participation of people with disabilities in cultural activities in Timișoara, conducted in a variety of locations: museums, places of worship, theaters, exhibition halls, cultural houses, cultural centers, or libraries operating in modern or heritage buildings.

We started together with the partners from existing resources:

the application Audara for the accessibility audit of museums;

experience in accessibility, accessible tourism, and organizing inclusive events

the project 'Timișoara Through Other Eyes - OPTIC', through which a brochure with tactile maps and images, 3D models of tourist attractions, and an audio archive to complement the tactile material through QR codes were created, aimed to create a sustainable project with long-term results and impact for Timișoara

We aimed to make cultural content accessible to the blind and visually impaired, as well as to people with comprehension difficulties, children and adults, which we plan to include in two types of products:

the tactile exhibition 'Feel the City' which includes 3D tactile models, tactile brochures in book and page format, and tactile maps of historic districts and the city;

tactile kits made of the same tactile materials as those included in the exhibition, but on a smaller scale, created for didactic and educational purposes.

We wanted to promote Timișoara as a disability-friendly tourism destination and we established several action directions:

to train guides and local tourism agents on how to approach groups consisting of people with disabilities;

to create more tourist routes in Timișoara and at a cross-border level, between Timișoara and various destinations in Hungary, that include accessible attractions, using resources from local guides and partner travel agencies specialized in accessible tourism in Romania - Accessible Romania by Sano Touring and Hungary - Hungary4All;

to promote the project at an international level during a conference organized on December 4th, thus marking the International Day of Persons with Disabilities celebrated on December 3rd.

Key milestones

Local partners have selected over 30 culturally significant buildings for the city, which will be involved in various types of actions:

• Accessibility audit, analysis of audit reports generated by Audara, and formulation of personalized recommendations for improving the existing situation.

• Informal training in the field of accessibility and inclusion of people with disabilities in cultural activities.

• Tactile reproduction in the form of 3D models and tactile brochures.
The application has been developed with new features to ensure:

• High flexibility in data collection through the availability of Progressive Web Apps (PWA) for Android and iOS, accessible to registered and validated users.

• Generation of accessibility audit reports in English.

• Use of results to create and populate the map of accessible tourist destinations, providing information about their accessibility.
Following consultations with blind individuals facing this condition in various circumstances, the project underwent significant improvements compared to the initial plan:

The 3D tactile models included in the exhibition have dimensions of approximately 40x40x40 cm, compared to the initially considered 10x10x10 cm.

The 3D tactile models included in the tactile kits have dimensions of approximately 14x14x14 cm, compared to the initially considered 10x10x10 cm.

This provides a significantly enhanced experience for users, in terms of detail.
Also, following consultations with the visually impaired throughout the project, we concluded that the option of accessing audio information about exhibits using QR codes, although widespread, does not provide independence for users.

We have thus developed a new product for the audio solution associated with 3D tactile models: the ArtEcho audio-guide platform, which allows content playback based on the identification of exhibits through intelligent NFC-type tags.
The platform includes iOS and Android mobile applications and allows the selection of the language in which the content is played. The narration is generated through artificial intelligence in 6 languages of international circulation, and the content in Romanian and Hungarian is based on recordings.
It was an extremely important moment during the project, as it allowed us to test all the developed products.

We were delighted to see that visually impaired and people with understanding difficulties were excited about touching the presented products. They appreciated them as "beautiful" (with smooth surfaces, without roughness) and mentioned that it helped them imagine a building they had only heard stories about.

Contactează-ne

CED Romania Association - Center of Excellence through Diversity
Registration No. in the National Register of Associations and Foundations: MJ 24177/A/2016
Tax Identification Code: 27440127
Headquarters Address: Str. Dorobanților nr. 1 - Hotel Mirage, parter, cam. 8, 905350 Eforie Nord, jud. Constanța, România
Correspondence Address: Șos. Morarilor nr. 2, corp C26, parter, cam. 8, sector 2, 022452 Bucharest, Romania

IBAN Account (RON) RO55BTRLRONCRT0532162201 - Transilvania Bank

IBAN Account (Euro) RO05BTRLEURCRT0532162201 - Transilvania Bank

(+40) 749 995 336

contact@timisoara4all.eu

office@ced-romania.org.ro

Beneficiary:

"Cultural Timișoara - European city, city of everyone"

The Project

Contactează-ne

Association CED Romania - Center for Excellence through Diversity

Partners:

A project realized with the support of: