Bell Museum of Natural History

One App Speaking Many Languages

While we have always supported multiple languages, it required building duplicate tours for each language. Now, the CultureConnect Platform provides visitors with a seamless, end-to-end language experience. Visitors select their language at the start and can switch between languages as they use the mobile guide without losing their place.

The CultureConnect platform’s Language Center in the CMS empowers museums like the Bell Museum to build any language into any digital experience from mobile guides to kiosks to online exhibits! A simple set of streamlined and intuitive controls allows staff to add unlimited languages by adding translated media files and text for all pages. Our tools provide an easy cross-check for missed fields (if a field is missed the media or text will default to the primary language).

The translated text and audio, produced by Q Media Productions was added to the application alongside the English language tours.

Accessibility Features

In partnership with the Bell Museum, CultureConnect expanded its accessibility features in order to unlock meaningful interpretation to those visitors using screen readers or other accessibility settings on their personal device. We accomplished this through three primary platform and product upgrades:

• First, we implemented ARIA labels. ARIA labels help add labels or descriptions to many of our mobile guide elements ranging from navigation buttons and other user-interface elements such as the ‘Play’ button for audio components.
• Next, we normalized our app hierarchy. Having consistent hierarchy and labeling (e.g. the title of a page is consistently recognized and described as a title) creates predictable behavior and thus, allows visually impaired users to adapt to the app structure and navigation faster.
• Then, we implemented an ARIA label/alt text field in the CMS. Clients can now create alt text for all image assets. For a user accessing the mobile guide through a screen reader, they can access image content in a meaningful way. Instead of the screen reader vocalizing the file name when scanning an image, it will recite the interpretive alt text.

User Testing

The implementation of accessibility features required two rounds of testing. As the mobile guide is intended to guests who are blind or have low vision, it was essential that this population validated the efficacy of the mobile guide in the museum. This meant testing both content and software.

Content included everything from the way-finding images and alt text to the Audio Description Tour that accompanied the English language tour.

Testing the software included nuances in ARIA labels and screen reader functionality and how well it facilitated in-app navigation as well as way-finding in the physical space.

After the first evaluation, it was discovered that some devices, like the iPhone 5 did not comply with the expected behavior of the Bell Museum mobile guide when accessed through a screen reader. With this feedback, the CultureConnect development team was able to fine tune the experience to ensure consistent behavior across a variety of cell phones and tablets.