Accessibility

Monday Musing: Up Periscope

By Elizabeth Merritt

The week before last I took a tour of the British Museum’s “Defining Beauty” exhibit, hosted by historian Dan Snow (who has a gorgeously plummy accent. Bonus). I did this while pacing the corridors of AAM, channeling Dan …
Monday Musing: Making it Personal with Telepresence

By Elizabeth Merritt

This video caught my attention this morning: a crowdfunding pitch for what is billed as “the world’s first social innovation telepresence experience.” This system, Omnipresenz, is designed to let you control a human …
Futurist Friday: Lend Me an Extra…Limb?

By Elizabeth Merritt

One subset of robotics pertains to cyborgs: “cybernetic organisms” that have both organic and biomechanical parts. The artificial limbs that enabled Oscar Pistorius to leap from the Paralympics to able-bodied international …
Robots for Accessibility: Help Henry Spread the Word

By Elizabeth Merritt

AAM conference attendees were joined in Seattle by Henry Evans, accessibility advocate and founder of Robots for Humanity.Henry joined us via a Beam Pro telepresence robot (courtesy of Suitable Technologies). Because he is quadriplegic, …
Exploring Robots for Accessibility, in Seattle

By Elizabeth Merritt

Every year CFM organizes a glimpse of the future in AAM’s own section of MuseumExpo at the annual meeting. Last year we explored 3D printing. This year we are hosting demonstrations of several technologies related to accessibility and to …
Futurist Friday: Robots for Humanity

By Elizabeth Merritt

Yah, I know, I know. The last “Futurist Friday” was about robots, too. But this is too interesting to pass up. I’ve written about instances in which robots are replacing human labor. But as I read more, it seems like the …
Through a (Google) Glass, Darkly

By Elizabeth Merritt

At the Tech@LEAD conference last week, Neal Stimler let me try his Google Glass. I had been kicking myself for not applying to be an early adopter of Glass, so I was happy to draft off Neal’s successful bid, however briefly. I’ve been …
Notes from the Future of Accessibility

By Elizabeth Merritt

Today I will be live-blogging from the Tech@LEAD conference (Technology for Cultural Inclusion) at the Kennedy Center in DC. I hope to be a conduit for your participation in the event–please let me know about things you would like me …
Roundup of Recent News on Accessible Design

By Elizabeth Merritt

With more and more museums pushing content to personal digital devices, we need to remember who we may be leaving out. When Phil and I talk about the digital divide, we are usually thinking of an economic barrier—the shrinking (but …
Reaching Behind the Glass

By Elizabeth Merritt

I’ve long admired the creativity and ingenuity of the Manchester Museum—following their exploits from inviting a hermit to live in the museum for forty days and forty nights and while engaging the public in an examination of what …