Senior citizens are often excluded from cultural experiences located inside public museums, for reasons such as physical impairments, institutionalization, or health limitations. The BeauCoup innovation creates multisensory, inclusive technologies using digital and analogue tools to make cultural heritage accessible and engaging even outside the cultural institutions. Local, state, and federal governments that manage museums are involved in the innovation process of barrier-free cultural access.
Innovation Summary
Innovation Overview
The project BeauCoup aims at creating a solution to let older adults explore and interact with cultural heritage outside existing institutional contexts (i.e. museums). So far, older adults are often excluded from cultural experiences located inside art-related institutions for various reasons, for example because of immobility caused by individual (e.g. physical impairments, remote residences, need of care) or societal (e.g. lockdown measures) reasons. However, exploring cultural artefacts can have a positive impact on the quality of life for older adults and keeps them socially and cognitively active and connected. Thus, it contributes to successful ageing.
BeauCoup creates a solution that enables various application partners like municipalities, museums, exhibitors and tourism agencies to create and share cultural experiences with older adults. The main goal is to encourage exploration, learning and social interaction. Hence, we combine analogue and digital tools to create interactive solutions that can be experienced by senior citizens living in different socio-economic and health conditions. By using a multisensory target group-oriented approach, we want older adults to experience culture in a way that stimulates cognitive processes and socialization. In this innovation, building blocks will be combined to three service delivery models (SDM) covering different usage scenarios: while a mix of analogue and digital artefacts was combined in the delivery models “The Bag” and “The Box” (which can be explored in interactive group settings), a digital solution providing interactive guided tours through museums and exhibitions will be delivered by “The Screen”. This way, BeauCoup sets new standards in bringing culture to the people and connecting them through a shared experience in order to stimulate social interaction and an active life.
This three “Service Delivery Models” and their usage scenarios can be described in detail:
1. “The Bag” contains different tools that are adapted to the needs of older adults to explore cultural heritage on their own. It comprises a tactile map to guide them, a tablet with special accessibility features, tactile reliefs and 3D printed replicas. In addition, a public mobile app provides them with contents on different media.
2. “The Box” allows elderly people to enjoy cultural heritage remotely. It allows senior citizens to read enlarged prints, to experiment with taste and scent inspired by the thematic cultural content, to watch interactive presentations, as well as to visit virtually curated exhibitions on a tablet.
3. “The Screen” helps overcome limited mobility. It comprises a tablet to experience a remotely accessible thematic cultural visit. Using the app with a simple, fully accessible and intuitive interface, older people can virtually join e.g. a live guided tour around a city or through museums. Since direct communication with the tour guide and other visitors is possible, questions can be asked and a discussion with other participants can be encouraged.
Innovation Description
What Makes Your Project Innovative?
The innovative dimensions of our project are articulated among them: (a) the service delivery models-based solution to bring culture outside museums and close to older adults via (b) multisensory technologies comprising a toolset of accessible, inclusive and customizable digital and analogue tools to enable engaging, interactive and collaborative exploration of culture and art for elderly people with different (dis)abilities to support aging well, with the (c) additional benefit of connecting different museum collections through thematic exhibitions that arrange contents and objects around cross-cutting topics, showing cultural diversity and connections among European countries and regions.
In other words: Our project concentrates on the implementation of innovative characteristics that allows for tailormade solutions.
What is the current status of your innovation?
Our innovation is in the final validation, i.e. the Service Delivery Models are going to be validated in the operational environments from a multi-stakeholder perspective. Realistic prototypes are set up to implement various scenarios and demonstrate the new delivery models in the countries of the project partners (Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland).
Innovation Development
Collaborations & Partnerships
The consortium of project partners comprises public sector organizations, small and medium enterprises, research organizations and universities as well as end-users. NOUS, Feelif, Fondazione Musei Senesi and Sign Time bring the technological know-how, supported by the Austrian Institute of Technology and the University of Siena. Austrian Association in Support of the Blind and Visually Impaired, TerzStiftung and Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa bring the end-user perspective to the project.
Users, Stakeholders & Beneficiaries
Senior citizens with onset or age-related disabilities, who want to experience art and culture within different contexts are the primary end-users. Quality of life in terms of well-being, social connection and cognitive functioning is improved among this target users.
Municipalities, museums, other cultural organizations, tourism agencies, healthcare institutions and recreational day centers utilize the innovation to increase the well-being of older adults via the exploration and discussion of cultural experiences.
Innovation Reflections
Results, Outcomes & Impacts
Users are continuously involved from the development phase to the testing and application of the innovation. An intermediate continuous assessment is performed via demonstrations, evaluations and validations in operational environments from a multi-stakeholder perspective. This assessment is based on a mixed methodology of qualitative and quantitative data to inspire the design with relevant insights for user-centered inclusive solutions as well as to measure the project impact on personal, social and organizational levels. Results from the conducted continuous iterative evaluations show a high efficiency and dependability for the technology design and a high impact on well-being and self-esteem of the users. Final validation round will be performed in 2024.
Challenges and Failures
Because of the consideration of internal and external quality measures based on reviews, continuous user feedback, regular project meetings, documentation, guidelines and the consequent application of structured development processes, challenges and failures have been kept at a low risk level and have not yet occurred. When needed, retrospective meetings are used to track lessons learned and optimize processes accordingly.
Conditions for Success
The continuous involvement of end users (in particular, primary end users: senior citizens) and all other application partners, such as municipalities and museums (secondary end users: employees; tertiary end users: decision makers), throughout the entire innovation process and beyond is necessary for the success of the innovation and for developing a sustainable and attractive solution. This approach needs to be present from the gathering of initial expectations and requirements, constantly evaluating the technical developments to validating the proposed solutions. To achieve this, we guarantee that the users involved enjoy the different workshops and evaluations already during the project phase.
Replication
Not only older adults but also younger persons with disabilities, caregivers and society as a whole can benefit from the innovation. People with motor and sensory disabilities will gain the opportunity to enjoy art and culture in novel forms, thus providing them with new and exciting experiences that they were unable to make before.
Experiencing art together will foster social connection. It will enable an increasing number of people to enjoy art and culture, and act as a multiplier for the positive impact of such activities on the end-users’ quality of life and thus on society in general, a goal that governments worldwide pursue. The innovation can therefore be used by the whole public sector that offers art and culture to their citizens.
Lessons Learned
The quality of life of elderly people and their family members is often severely challenged – by mental, emotional and /or physical aspects. Engaging in cultural programs can be fun and relaxing as well as stimulating and meaningful. It is an activity that can elicit positive emotions and inspire people to reflect on new ideas and look at things from a different perspective. We realized that the senior citizens that were involved in the project (e.g. gathering of initial expectations and requirements, evaluations of technical developments) enjoyed positively the different workshops and evaluations already during the project phase (e.g. by providing exciting and appropriate prototypes, interesting content contributions and entertaining tasks).
Project Pitch
Supporting Videos
Status:
- Identifying or Discovering Problems or Opportunities - learning where and how an innovative response is needed
- Generating Ideas or Designing Solutions - finding and filtering ideas to respond to the problem or opportunity
- Developing Proposals - turning ideas into business cases that can be assessed and acted on
- Implementation - making the innovation happen
- Evaluation - understanding whether the innovative initiative has delivered what was needed
Innovation provided by:
Date Published:
1 July 2024