Text and photos by Søren Ginnerup, Senior Consultant, Danish Centre for Accessibility.

Accessibility and IT in the World Exposition in Germany

Hanover’s Expo 2000 is huge. More than 190 national exhibitions and 11 thematic areas inform about the countries of the world, about visions and about the expo’s themes: mankind, future work, health, nutrition, mobility, energy and the environment. Even though the most popular pavilions have long queues waiting outside, the organisers still find the number of visitors in general too small.

One easy conclusion is that this is emphatically not because disabled people are being kept away: EXPO 2000 is an interesting example of how to handle accessibility on the grand scale, from wheelchair ramps to guides and presentations using advanced multimedia technology.

Efforts were already made at the planning stage to ensure that this Expo would be accessible to disabled persons, among other things by involving local associations for disabled people in preparing the services offered.

If you go to www.barrierefreireisen.de or EXPO’s own homepage, you can order a guide to wheelchair-accessible overnight accommodation, attractions and transportation in Lower Saxony. Also available is a brochure of services provided at EXPO 2000 for wheelchair users, walking-impaired, blind, visually impaired or hearing-impaired people.

New Types of Information

Physical accessibility is consistent throughout the exhibition grounds, in the thematic areas and in the aerial cableway high above the exhibition. Each country had to comply with German standards for barrier-free access when designing its pavilion, and actual physical conditions are clearly described in the printed guide with pictograms and text. The extended use of multimedia shows with light and sound provides new types of information. Apart from the slope of ramps, the printed guide provides information about powerful sound and lighting effects or low light areas which may be difficult for visually impaired visitors to manage.

The German Association for the Blind and Visually Handicapped has organised a guide service with escorts who can accompany blind visitors. Tactile maps are also available, as are smart relief panels at the information counters in the exhibition area, all to help visitors find their way.

On guided tours, sign-language interpretation in German, English, French, Spanish and other languages is available on request. Several ticket counters have been provided with induction loops, while telekiosks in the exhibition grounds have e-mail and fax services, and walking-impaired persons may rent everything from wheelchairs to electric mini-vehicles.

The EXPO's information counters. Tactile maps in colours and varied textures.

The latest Technology

You notice the presence of the latest information technology all over the place: it functions as an ’interpreter’ of the messages encompassed in the exposition. One of the major thematic areas, ’Planet of Visions’, uses a kind of ’visio guides’ or info stands by IBM to explain visions of the future as experienced down through the ages. Turning the info stand towards any given spot on a large panorama exhibition, a built-in screen will immediately capture an explanatory text and at the same time display that part of the panorama which the info stand is focused on. The stand is electrically adjustable to accommodate children and wheelchair users, as well as visitors standing on their feet. No speech has been incorporated.

Iceland, for example, has placed a range of multimedia screens at a level equally convenient to standing and sitting visitors. Each screen has good individual acoustics and has been arranged so as not to disturb its neighbour. A small dome above the screen directs the sound towards its user: both a sturdy solution, as it requires neither headphones nor other separate equipment which may be difficult to handle, and an elegant and reliable one, which presents another aspect of accessibility – that things must keep working.

The thematic areas exhibit products whose operation and communications have been designed to consider various groups of disabled people, as for example in the futuristic computer workstations in the ’Future at Work’ area. Somewhere else a voice-controlled, PacMan-type game attracts lots of children. By giving orders in English or German the players direct their actors through the game, which is equally difficult to children with restricted or unrestricted mobility.

The interactive multimedia shows are primarily targeted at sighted people, while blind people have to rely on their personal escorts to get the intended result. Exhibitors might well have combined the browser-based shows with screen readers.

When "Low-tech" is best

In its enthusiasm for modern information technology, EXPO 2000 is also an excellent reminder that ‘low-tech’ information with appeal to the human senses may sometimes have the best effect. One good example is when you find yourself entering a market place transferred from Yemen, with its abundance of sounds, smells, people, products to touch and titbits to taste: it is all very convincing.

Computer screens for standing and sitting visitors; the sound is focused on the user.

No plasma screens with 3D effects or surround speakers are required to bring the message across to visitors. Human senses at work – that too is accessibility.

Published in Crisp & Clear No. 3, October 2000