20.02.2023
Visitors to the Collections Online of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin are now supplied with extensive information in German sign language and Leichte Sprache (Easy Language).
Expanding the online presentation with inclusive content is a focus of the continuous development of the Collections Online web portal. The portal functions as a digital window for viewing almost 285,000 objects from the 19 collections and institutes of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. The aim is to create new digital museum resources while focusing on the diverse interests and needs of the broadest possible public.
Throughout the development of the Collections Online, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin team worked with an advisory board of inclusion experts who live with disabilities. To give more people with very different circumstances access to the museums’ digital cosmos, not only did the legal requirements for accessibility need to be met, but further measures along the path to a comprehensive, inclusive service also had to be identified and implemented. The barrier-free website design and new language versions in German sign language and Easy Language for improved accessibility to digital museum content form the basis for continuously expanding inclusive digital content via the Collections Online portal.
The online collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin are among the many educational and informational resources offered by (De-)Coding Culture – Cultural Skills in the Virtual Realm, a sub-project of museum4punkt0 – Digital Strategies for the Museum of the Future. Launched in 2017, this collaborative project funded by the German Federal Commissioner for Cultural and the Media has developed a broad spectrum of applications and prototypes that take the experience of a museum visit into the digital realm in a wide variety of ways.
