{"69022":{"#nid":"69022","#data":{"type":"news","title":"CATEA Conducts Accessibility Study on Ga Aquarium","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Southeast DBTAC, a project within the Center for Assistive Technology \u0026amp; Environmental Access (CATEA) recently completed an accessibility study on the Georgia Aquarium.  The Georgia Aquarium, a 550,000 square foot facility, and expanding to 580,000 with over 500 species of fish and other aquatic life, is the largest aquarium in the United States.  The Aquarium\u0027s vision is to be \u0022the world\u0027s most engaging aquarium experience\u0022 to a wide variety of people - people of all ages, with and without disabilities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile the Aquarium has disability access such as an accessible drop off area, a supply of wheelchairs on hand that can be checked out by visitors, and assistive listening devices to provide better communication for people with hearing impairments, the accessibility study offered a way for the Aquarium to enhance their efforts by obtaining information on how individuals with disabilities interact with the exhibits and how they feel about the experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022People with disabilities want to participate in the same community activities available to their non-disabled counterparts,\u0022 said Shelley Kaplan, director of the Southeast DBTAC project. \u0022However, due to various physical, programmatic and attitudinal barriers, their experiences are not always as meaningful. Many of these barriers persist because we don\u0027t actively engage people with disabilities in developing solutions. This was a unique opportunity to take a first-hand look at how well existing access features enhanced the Aquarium experience by a variety of individuals with different disabilities.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUsing visitor observation and touring interview techniques, CATEA co-investigators Beth Bryant and Carrie Bruce shadowed several small groups of people with a variety of disabilities as they toured through the various exhibits.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We wanted to investigate a range of experiences from individuals with varying abilities,\u0022 said Bruce.  \u0022Adult participants with lower motor, upper motor, speech, language, voice, hearing, vision, and cognitive impairments were included.  We learned a great deal from the participant groups and about how existing and potential exhibit designs need to meet all visitors\u0027 needs.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudy participants were given a set of exhibits to visit. As Bryant and Bruce followed the participants, they interviewed participants while visiting the exhibits and took notes on how each person interacted with the exhibit.   After touring the Aquarium, participants met in small focus groups and discussed the experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe study team monitored three main characteristics of an environment that can either act as a barrier or facilitator to viewing and interacting with an exhibit.  These were:  (1) display - which includes viewing height of the exhibit, interaction height, and visibility; (2) interpretation - which includes position of exhibit information, readability, lighting, visibility, and sufficiency of information; and (3) surrounding physical environment - which includes crowd, noise, and lighting.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Watching people with various disabilities interact with the exhibits was an eye opening experience,\u0022 said Bryant.  \u0022Usability and accessibility testing that incorporates users with varying abilities throughout the design process typically leads to better outcomes -leading to more universally designed exhibits that everyone can enjoy.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe study team made suggestions related to features and characteristics such as path lighting or bottlenecks, display height, depth or distance, and interpretation placement, readability, or sufficiency.  \u0022The objective was to create an awareness of usability problems for visitors with disabilities and to inform Aquarium staff and others on the need for and direction of additional research,\u0022 said Bryant.  \u0022The most significant recommendation was to analyze and test key characteristics of current and potential exhibits, before costly or significant changes are implemented.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022And for us, we will use the results to share with other similar venues both regionally and nationally,\u0022 said Kaplan.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor more information on the project, contact Carrie Bruce at \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:carrie.bruce@coa.gatech.edu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Ecarrie.bruce@coa.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E . For more information about the Americans with Disabilities, contact the Southeast DBTAC at 1-800-949-4232 (v\/tty) or \u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:sedbtacproject@law.syr.edu\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Esedbtacproject@law.syr.edu\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe Southeast DBTAC, a project within the Center for Assistive Technology \u0026amp; Environmental Access (CATEA) recently completed an accessibility study on the Georgia Aquarium.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"How do individuals interact with exhibits?"}],"uid":"27220","created_gmt":"2006-11-01 01:00:00","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:09:52","author":"Leslie Sharp","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2006-11-01T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2006-11-01T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"69023":{"id":"69023","type":"image","title":"The Georgia Aquarium","body":null,"created":"1449177228","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:13:48","changed":"1475894602","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:22"},"69024":{"id":"69024","type":"image","title":"One of the Georgia Aquarium","body":null,"created":"1449177228","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:13:48","changed":"1475894602","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:22"},"69025":{"id":"69025","type":"image","title":"Visitors at one of the Georgia Aquarium\\\u0027s touch t","body":null,"created":"1449177228","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:13:48","changed":"1475894602","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:43:22"}},"media_ids":["69023","69024","69025"],"groups":[{"id":"1221","name":"College of Design"}],"categories":[{"id":"137","name":"Architecture"},{"id":"154","name":"Environment"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"13804","name":"accessibility study"},{"id":"358","name":"CATEA"},{"id":"1531","name":"center for assistive technology and environmental access"},{"id":"12942","name":"georgia aquarium"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["leslie.sharp@coa.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}