Art historians from the University of Lodz have been trying to change this situation, and for over ten years they have been conducting pioneering research on audio description on a national scale. The team led by Prof. dr hab. Aneta Pawłowska, consisting of: Dr Magdalena Górska, Dr Adam Drozdowski, Dr Daria Rutkowska-Siuda, an educator from the Museum of the City of Lodz Dr Paulina Długosz and an artist and researcher developing the issues of accessibility of art for deaf people, Agnieszka Kołodziejczak, in cooperation with local museums, has contributed significantly to raising the level of accessibility of art for people with disabilities in our region in recent years.
What exactly is audio description?
According to the simplest definition, it is a verbal description of a work of art that allows visually impaired people to perceive the work both at the level of its composition and on an emotional level, which can also benefit fully able recipients who do not interact with art on a daily basis.
Currently, art historians from Lodz, in cooperation with IT specialists and psychologists from the SWPS University in Warsaw, are completing work on the project "Przyjazne Miasto. Wsparcie samodzielności osób z dysfunkcja wzroku w zakresie wykorzystania sieci połączeń komunikacji miejskiej w Lodzi, z uwzględnieniem aplikacji dotyczącej informacji lokalizacyjnych oraz zabytków architektury miejscowej" [Friendly City. Support for the independence of people with visual impairments in the use of the public transport network in Lodz, including applications concerning location information and local architectural monuments]. Over 80 descriptions of the most important and beautiful buildings in the city have been prepared, which will thus become more recognisable to all residents of the city. Eye-tracking studies, during which, thanks to devices tracking the movement of eyeballs while viewing monuments, subsequent aspects of creating audio descriptions of architecture were clarified constituted an important element of the descriptions prepared.
The project will also significantly increase the mobility of people with disabilities. 180 guide markers have been installed at tram and bus stops in Lodz, thanks to which it will be much easier for visually impaired people to move around the city. As in the case of other activities of the team, people with disabilities participated in the project at all stages of its implementation, confirming the correctness of the steps taken. The mentioned application will also be an attractive method of developing tourism in our city. All guests visiting the city will be able to use the descriptions contained in it, especially since it is available in four language versions: Polish, English, Spanish and Ukrainian.
The application being developed will be available for mobile devices using both iOS and Android systems. All interested parties will be able to test it during walks led by art historians and IT specialists from the University of Lodz, planned for the second half of March and early April 2025.