At the beginning of October 2024, our sensational researcher, Sophie Vohra, travelled to Boise Idaho to learn from and present at the first Mosaic Convening, hosted by Prime Access Consulting (PAC).
Image Description: Three images layered over each other into a banner, each of a view from inside a vehicle looking out of a window. The image of the left is of a smaller, curved-corner rectangular plane window, with part of the wing in view, a sunset over Greenland, and a rainbow illusion in the top left corner from the jet stream. The middle image is of a large train window, which shows a green field with trees and a small patch of water, with a vibrant blue sky with a few clouds, and the edge of the train tracks, blurred due to the speed of travel and perspective. The right image is a car window, looking out onto the entrance to York railway station, with a metal bench and taxis in the foreground, and people waiting and walking into the mechanical-opening doors into a sandy-stone coloured building, with semi-circled windowed archways and various advertising posters covering the façade.
Sophie writes:
24 hours there, 25 hours back, playing out my own version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles – the cost of an adventure to be part a convening of incredible heritage and access professionals working in the North America and Canada.
On behalf of The Institute for Digital Culture and The Sensational Museum, I was invited to share our research with a number of organisations who work with PAC – an access consultancy company that supports the organisations to create welcoming and equitable spaces for the widest possible audience. As the only British accent in the room, I felt both privileged and slightly fearful to be invited into a space to share and reflect on the American and Canadian experience of designing and implementing access.
While I hope my contribution to the convening discussions was useful, interesting and valid, what I gained from this experience surpassed my already high expectations. From digital to analogue, from small interventions to whole site redevelopments, organisations shared how their work pushed to expand access to cultural heritage. These presentations provided ideas and questions I could take back to the IDC and TSM, such as PAC’s tactile storytelling panels, or the ways we support students’ expectations of working in the heritage industry while developing in-practice sector-specific skill sets.
Image description: An A3-size tactile storytelling board, made of robust, thick, white plastic. It depicts a winding pathway with different textures along the route, with written elements in black text, accompanied by their braille version, and a key at the bottom for the different textures.
Read the full description of ‘The Hero’s Journey’ tactile storytelling board.
Sophie continues:
It was also fantastic to have a series of discussions facilitated by (undeniably brilliant) emerging professionals, that aimed to support their own professional and research-based work. These provocations included how we can create useful, engaging and accessible ‘touch’ interactions, and how accessibility can be cultivated and operationalised for staff across all museum departments.
Importantly, this was not only a space to learn and share, it was an example of how events can be hosted to provide access, equity and comfort for everyone there. The design of the convening felt familiar, as it implemented many accessible features and formats used by TSM for our events and workshops. Fidget tools, lots of snacks and drinks, long breaks, descriptive wayfinding, braille labels, ASL interpreters and CART recordings (also know as real-time captioning) were only some of the ways they ensured comfort and safety. Most impressive (and a fan favourite) was their simple yet effective ‘Sensory Room’, the design of which I most certainly plan to implement in our future events and workshops.
The Sensory Room set up for the Convening
Image description: A darkened, rectangular room. On the left wall is a canvas photograph of a lake with mountains in the background, and along this wall are a cream chaise longue with a grey weighted blanket and knot-shaped pillows, and a 3-seater sofa along the left wall, with a large orange pillow and leather footstool. To the right side, in front of heavy, floor-length blackout curtains are two bright red armchairs, the nearer to the room’s door with another weighted blanket and knotted pillow, and the other with a bright red footstool and floor pillow next to it. In between both the sofas and the two armchairs are circular side tables with fidget tools, scented oil bottles, and disc-shaped speakers. At the back of the room is a down-lit kitchenette, with a sink, fridge, snacks, and a shelf with a vase of artificial red flowers. On the back wall is a vertically hung large rectangular print of deep red flowers and leaves. Finally, protruding forward on the back wall (as a section has been used to house a bathroom behind it), is a wall-mounted television screen with a string of flowing neon ‘hairs’ resembling a jellyfish, lit in turquoise, suspended off it, flowing over a backless wooden bench below the screen, with the ends curled together on the floor below.
Not only were we treated to fulfilling discussions about our work, we were also treated to a night at the museum, hosted by Boise Art Museum (BAM). Alongside good food, drink and company, we enjoyed access to their exhibitions, including El Sueño Americano (photographic storytelling of the invisible experience of Mexico-United States border crossing for asylum seekers) and Coyote Now (participatory installations and public artworks for people to consider their relationships to the environment, technology, society and culture). There is now a TSM ‘Easter Egg’ on the colouring-in wall, if you make it to BAM.
The Coyote Now Colouring Wall
Image description: An angled perspective of piece of wall art, from ceiling to floor and covering the entire width of the wall. In black, printed outlines, it depicts the sky with birds, a city scape below, and the ground with coyotes jumping in amongst the bushes while surrounded by coyote bones. The image has been ‘coloured in’ using crayoned shaped like coyote bones, with many colours overlaying each other, with different additions by a number of contributors. The higher portions are less colourful, as they are not reachable without a ladder or similar apparatus. People are stood in front of the wall, to the right of the image, adding their own contributions, with JJ Hunt, a man with grey hair and beard, dressed in a royal blue suit jacket and black trousers, in the foreground colouring in the wall with a coyote bone-shaped crayon.
Sophie continues:
Not only were we treated to fulfilling discussions about our work, we were also treated to a night at the museum, hosted by Boise Art Museum (BAM). Alongside good food, drink and company, we enjoyed access to their exhibitions, including El Sueño Americano (photographic storytelling of the invisible experience of Mexico-United States border crossing for asylum seekers) and Coyote Now (participatory installations and public artworks for people to consider their relationships to the environment, technology, society and culture). There is now a TSM ‘Easter Egg’ on the colouring-in wall, if you make it to BAM.
The Coyote Now TSM ‘Easter Egg’
Image description: A portion of the Coyote Wall that shows thick black printed lines, coloured in in different crayon colours, giving it a mottled effect. Somewhat obscured by the other colours and the texture of the wall material, in the middle of the image, at an angle sloping up from left to right, are the letters ‘TSM’ in dark green crayon
We finished the event with a fantastic send off at a bartender, women and queer owned cocktail lounge, Water Bear. With beautiful closing speeches by PAC’s Corey Timpson and Sina Bahram, an Impact Award was presented to Chris Xu from Slack for the session that most impacted everyone at the convening, and a Community Champion award to Melanie Fales for their work on inclusive design and accessibility at BAM. A fantastic end to an incredible three days. Providing an audio description of an egg-shaped glass for my coconut-milky drink for another attendee was a personal highlight of the night.
The ‘Egg-shaped’ drinking vessel at Water Bear
Image description: A heavy turquoise egg-shaped glass, with a mottled, dripped black ink effect to replicate an egg texture. The top of the structure has the top ‘removed’ with V-shaped teeth around the edges, inside is a frothy, milky-like substance, with a turquoise straw sticking out, angled to the left, a dark Maraschino cherry and orange segment, skewered by a turquoise paper umbrella, sat on top of the drink.
Sophie’s reflections:
I think we were all sad to end the convening, as it was an event that brought together likeminded people, who were excited rather than scared at the prospect of expanding access in their own work. I am very honoured to have been invited to this convening, and I flew away with my mind full of ideas, my soul enriched by renewed empowerment, and my contact list burgeoning with new, incredible people based across the Atlantic Ocean
I hope that this is the first of many of these convenings, and that, in future, there is a place at the table for more British and European allies to join in these incredible conversations.
The Hero’s Journey – a tactile interpretation
As you get oriented, you’ll notice a title at the top centre of the piece, along with a horizontal legend located in the bottom left corner.
This horizontal graphic represents a large, winding path that evokes the image of a river. The path begins at the top left of the page, weaving down and around, curving up and down, left and right, and finally ending at the top right. It is defined by two thick strokes that transition from solid to dashed and back to solid again. The solid lines signify the parts of the journey known to the Hero, while the dashed sections symbolize the new or unknown territories they encounter.
Within the path, various textures represent the Hero’s emotional states. Each texture is mapped to a Braille label inside the path to indicate the feelings experienced at different stages of the journey. Additional Braille labels outside the path identify each section of the journey.
Now that you have had a few moments with the tactile, please journey back to the top left where you’ll encounter Braille and printed text that reads “1. Status Quo.” At the bottom left of the Braille, a leading strip guides you down to two thick, solid horizontal lines approximately 2 inches apart vertically, representing the ‘path’ or ‘journey.’
Starting at this section of the path the texture is smooth and unobstructed – you’re “content” as this is the first phase, “1. Status Quo”.
As you continue to the right, your fingers will pause at a sandpaper-like texture, which evokes curiosity. This represents the next phase, “2. The Call”, labelled to the right of the path. This phase is akin to when Gandalf knocks on Frodo’s door. The path curves down and slightly to the left, transitioning into a more unstructured texture that feels a bit confusing, you are uncertain. This is next phase of the journey, “3. Refusal”, labelled to the left of the path. Why would Frodo want to leave the comfort of his hobbit hole? Notice now that the texture of the path outline has transitioned from a solid line to a dashed line indicating that we have now left the “known,” and have now entered the “unknown”.
Switching back to the right, the texture within the path becomes smoother again, with two leading rails guiding you down and left like a slide. This transition instils a sense of confidence; you are no longer unsure, but rather “brave” as you navigate the curve. Notice how the Braille labelling of “Brave” is orientated vertically to follow the path of your finger? This moment signifies the next stage, “4. meeting your mentor.” As you proceed, you feel a mix of “excitement and nervousness” as the texture shifts into a series of flowing up-and-down curved lines, resembling small waves or the sensation of butterflies in your stomach.
At this point, the path curves downward and back to the right, leading you to a series of broken lines that create larger ups and downs, similar to a roller coaster. This section feels uneasy, resembling “panic” as you enter the next phase, “5. Test, Allies, and Enemies”, labelled to the left of the downward curve. Should Frodo and the Fellowship go over or under the mountain?
Continuing right, following the path through its ups and downs until the texture becomes uncomfortable and somewhat sharp—of all the textures encountered so far, this one is the least pleasant. This represents the next phase, “6. Final Conflict,” labelled at the bottom of the winding path. This is where Frodo and Gollum battle for the ring above the fires of Mount Doom.
The path then curves upward and slightly to the left, revealing a smoother, more rounded texture that brings a sense of “hope”, suggesting the sharp discomfort has passed. Again, notice how the Braille label of the word “Hope” is orientated vertically, now moving up, following the path of your finger. This is the next stage, “7. Growth”, labelled to the right of the word “Hope”.
As you continue along the path, the pattern transforms into a series of comfortable inverted dots, symbolizing “joy” in the next stage, “8. Reward.”, labelled to the right of the inner curve. Hurray, Middle Earth is saved!
Finally, the path curves and shifts to the right as you encounter a series of columned lines that gradually fade away, allowing you to experience “relief” in the final stage: “9. Returning Home.” labelled above the path.