Heritage sites

From Spain – people with intellectual

Heritage sites experience design with special needs customers

Download pdf   https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJCHM-03-2018-0241/full/pdf?title=heritage-sites-experience-design-with-special-needs-customers

Online page    https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJCHM-03-2018-0241/full/html

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of including customers with special needs in the design of cultural and heritage services before the actual experience takes place.
Design/methodology/approach – Inclusive research through co-creation took place in the city of Barcelona, Spain, in 2017, comparing the effect of including (Route 2) or not including (Route 1) customers with visual and learning difficulties in the service design process of heritage walking routes.
Findings – The results show that the most important encounter in the heritage site context is communication, although the usage and service touchpoints were also significant. In addition, results showed that the ideal encounter or touchpoint should take place before the stay.

conclusion  From the underlying study, it can be concluded that universal accessibility is an area of significant underperformance by heritage site organizations. This study proves that when people with special needs are included in the design process, they become co-producers and co-innovators of their cultural experience, improving the experience and adapting it to their needs it can be concluded that the most influential criteria for co-creation emerges before the stay and in the booking phase, during the communication encounter, when the service has to be adapted to a new segment of people with special needs.  It can also be concluded that by giving a voice to individuals with disabilities and by using communication aids when needed, a mutual and voluntary process of collaboration, learning and dialogue can be generated.

Accessibility of Castles: Reality, Imagination and Good Practices for Memory and Dissemination

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-16-5225-7_2

Abstract

The European Year of Cultural Heritage (EYCH) 2018 indicates the architecture of castles as an element of European culture recognition and guardian. The castle is configured as a privileged custodian of memory and “spirit” in which a community has formed and consolidated over time. In this perspective, access to culture and cultural heritage constitutes the core behaviour of a society which aspires to be inclusive and barrier-free. The example, through some good practices, of multidisciplinary approaches applied to the Italian architectural heritage, can represent a first step for the sharing of solutions to common problems and obstacles. The first example refers to the International Summer School (ISS) held in Brescia starting from 2017 “Universal Design and Sustainable Tourism: Cidneo Hill and Its Castle in Brescia”. The elaboration of different projects of preservation and restoration involved specialisations such as architecture, engineering, linguistics, sociology, communications and marketing. The research was focused on the theme of accessibility to architectural heritage, the mediaeval fortress of the city and its enhancement with an interdisciplinary and holistic approach in the perspective of Universal Design. The second example refers to the permanent exhibition “Signs of Light”, Cemmo, Capo di Ponte (Brescia-Italy), at Palazzo Zitti: the musealisation of a historical architecture that conforms to a castle, closed and inaccessible, through the realisation of an inclusive, multimedia exhibition that respects the artistic patrimony in which it is inserted.

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