February 2018

Marketing for museums: HearIT the solution to improve accessibility

Mobile strategy

Here’s an innovative tool to break down sensory barriers making cultural and artistic heritage accessible to all, even to visually impaired people. NearIT presents the app HearIT.

Accessibility means modernity

Making the artistic and historic heritage available for everyone it’s a proof of a civil and modern country. Offering indiscriminately to everyone the chance to enjoy the art and the archeology with no limits or barriers it’s now a purpose that should be common. After the collaboration with Rotary Club in Friuli we developed a product that could be used by any museum, gallery, exhibition temporary or permanent to raise the accessibility even for people with visual deficit: we present you HearIT.

The app for every museum

HearIt is a simple and versatile tool suitable for every exhibition space. It has been specifically developed to make easier the life of those who manage the museum preparation and of those who, affected by visual deficit, too often cannot visit properly the museums with the tools offered. We are not talking about blind people but the ones with visual problem, like aged people or partially sighted. Because of the global progressively ageing population, the numbers of partially sighted people is substantially increased: now are almost 1 million. For all those the poor material now available, like the Braille cards, is absolutely not suitable because are tool that they don’t know how to use. Therefor the main need is to offer something flexible and easy to use, that doesn’t require a particular knowledge to be used.

How does it work

HeartIT is not an app available on the stores. It’s already installed on the smartphone made available in the museums. It has been developed with particular features in order to meet the necessity of a special audience.

For example it has been developed just for device with a central menu button, so the person with visual deficit can easily find it just thanks to a touch. The graphic interface has been designed by taking under consideration specific usability standard, it’s very easy to use with no signs but just with some graphic references. The app works thanks to NearIT integration, through beacons placed in specific interesting areas, are able to deliver audio-descriptions when the user is detected close to the beacon itself.

At this point the smartphone buzzes and just touching the screen everywhere the user can play the audio which can be stopped in any minute with another tap. NearIT is in charge to manage the contents: each beacon coincides with a recipe, each recipe has a different content, each content is a different audio.

By writing the text in the WHAT section, this is then converted in audio by the speech synthesizer of the device. It’s also possible to change the text and to turn on or off a recipe in any moment.

Why choosing HearIT for your museum

NearIT makes this app flexible and adaptable to any sort of context, but moreover manageable and cheap. Just logging into the platform you will instantly and autonomously change the text. Investing in a tool like this you can get an immediate response. By choosing an instrument able to guarantee the inclusione and the accessibility, a museum increase its notoriety and prestige and, because it is affordable for everyone, it will increase even the number of visitors. This choice will be part of a strategic marketing plan (read our article about it!) to increase the offer and the quality of the service.

Do you want to know better HearIT?