SHAPE 2017 TateExchange Book FINAL Draft - Flipbook - Page 6
Introduction
Zoe Partington
In partnership with Tate Exchange, Shape Arts and blind and partially
sighted artists, these articles present thought-provoking explorations
in audio description and information from professionals in inclusion
for blind and partially sighted people to art, culture and heritage.
The publication is a celebration of inclusion for all. It is from a unique
perspective with an emphasis on blind and partially sighted people.
Often the very people we are trying to include can be excluded or
neglected from the debates of creative accessibility. This document
poses pertinent questions such as, ‘who is asking who?’ about the
impact of audio description on blind and partially sighted people’s
experiences in museum and galleries. The future of interpretation
combined with audio description, we believe, lies with collaboration,
featuring a layer of different perspectives with blind and partially
sighted people at the centre. The end game is to ensure that audio
description can benefit us all and transform the offer in museums and
galleries to not only benefit blind and partially sighted people but offer
all visitors a new perspective.
As a person with ‘sight loss’, I challenge the notion of the ‘visual’ as the
only means to connect with art. For centuries, art has been interpreted
and explored through other means: words, language, stories, scents
and immersive experiences. It is only in more modern times that
the visual has over overpowered ‘the experience’ and has in doing
so forced sighted people to be the ones who face a ‘loss’ of missing
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