accessibility Archives

Vision Impairment

What is it like to go blind?

350 million people around the world live with severe vision impairment, ranging from those who can see a couple of letters on a sight chart to those who perceive no light at all. In this book we meet some of them, including artists, poets, scientists, architects, politicians, broadcasters and musicians. Together, we discuss every stage of life with vision impairment – from childhood and education to dating, employment and ageing – as well as the portrayal of blind people in literature and film, the use of technology by people with vision impairment, and the psychological effects of losing vision.

Vision Impairment also reviews the major causes of sight loss today and shows the effect of these diseases on visual function. It surveys new and emerging treatments for serious eye diseases and explores what it is like to have vision restored after decades of being blind.

Based on Michael Crossland’s extensive work in children’s and adults’ low vision clinics, and his 20 years of research into vision impairment, the book blends individual stories, key research findings and the most recent scientific discoveries to present an informative yet optimistic overview of living with sight loss.

Navigating Artificial Intelligence for Cultural Heritage Organisations

The question of how artificial intelligence and machine learning should be applied to data in libraries and other cultural institutions is a challenge shared by heritage professionals, computer scientists and digital humanities scholars.

As the number of digitised and born-digital records grows, archival practices are looking to automated systems to manage workloads and make cultural records more accessible. AI is playing a crucial role in data management systems within the cultural heritage sector, and information professionals are looking for ways to navigate current challenges and opportunities. Additionally, sector professionals and scholars are benefiting from the many new affordances and innovative research questions offered by using large-scale digital collections as data.

Navigating Artificial Intelligence for Cultural Heritage Organisations explores the innovative technologies and approaches to digitised and born-digital records within libraries and archives across the UK and US, and beyond. It brings together chapters from experts across the fields of digital humanities, computer science and information science, alongside professionals within the library and archival sector. The authors explore technologies being applied to digitised and born-digital records within libraries, archives and other heritage organisations, including innovative approaches in computer vision, Chat GPT, and user experience. The volume has been designed to reflect current and state-of-the-art technologies and innovations for the preservation and accessibility of digitised and born-digital records, to help navigate the future of AI for cultural heritage organisations.

Captioning and Subtitling for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences

Captioning and Subtitling for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences is a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of captioning and subtitling, a discipline that has evolved quickly in recent years.

This guide is of a practical nature and contains examples and exercises at the end of each chapter. Some of the tasks stimulate reflection on the practice and reception, while others focus on particular captioning and SDH areas, such as paralinguistic features, music and sound effects. The requirements of d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences are analysed in detail and are accompanied by linguistic and technical considerations. These considerations, though shared with generic subtitling parameters, are discussed specifically with d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences in mind. The reader will become familiar with the characteristics and needs of d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences, and the diversity – including cultural and linguistic differences – within this group of people.

Based on first-hand experience in the field, the book also provides a step-by-step guide to making live performances accessible to d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences. As well as exploring all linguistic and technical matters related to the creation of captions, aspects related to the overall set up of the captioned performance are discussed. The guide will be valuable reading to students of audiovisual translation at undergraduate and postgraduate level, to professional subtitlers and captioners, and to any organisation or venue that engages with d/Deaf and hard of hearing people.

Captioning and Subtitling for d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Audiences is a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of captioning and subtitling.

Beyond the Visual

Beyond the Visual broadens the discussion of multisensory ways of beholding contemporary art, with a particular emphasis on modes that transcend a dependency upon sight. A central premise is that a shift in the aesthetic engagement afforded by hybrid forms of contemporary art has the potential to open up new sensory and cognitive engagements for blind and partially blind people. This is a subject that has rarely been addressed within the literature on contemporary arts or disability studies.

Bringing together leading international scholars and artists in the emerging field of ‘blindness arts’, including blind and partially blind artists, curators, advocates for inclusive practices and models of audio description, cognitive psychologists, and theorists of installation, performance and sound art, the book offers a detailed consideration of exemplars of such multisensory engagement, pre-eminently in works by blind or partially blind artists. In so doing, the book not only shifts the discussion on access and inclusivity – reconceiving access as integral to the creative process – but argues that this has the potential to enrich the experience of art for all beholders, moving beyond an often-unexamined reliance on vision.