Web Accessibility

Close-up of the "Campbell Kids Pop-Up" valentine in the open position.

Campbell Kids Pop-up, artefact from the virtual exhibit entitled Valentine's Day: Love and Romance Through the Ages, at the Virtual Museum of Canada.

"The Campbell Kids Pop-up is from the virtual exhibit entitled Valentine's Day: Love and Romance Through the Ages. "We worked with accessibility consultants, as well as an advisory committee, and also tested the site on a regular basis with people working with people with disabilities." (2004) Valérie Chartrand, Project Manager, CHIN

"But nowadays, websites are being used - especially within a cultural context - in many different ways. They might be used to entertain the users, to stimulate them, perhaps to challenge assumptions; and accessibility in this context is much more challenging." Brian Kelly, UKOLN (United Kingdom)

Challenges Faced by Members

Virtual Exhibit: Valentine's Day: Love and Romance Through the Ages

At the time of its creation, the virtual exhibit Valentine's Day: Love and Romance Through the Ages met a need to create fully accessible virtual exhibits among our members. We are still concerned about accessibility issues today, and we are offering new dynamic and interactive sites to reach our audiences and highlight Canadian collections.

Renewed Solutions

Online Resource: Internet Accessibility

When our initiatives on accessibility of online content began, very little documentation or research existed on the subject. CHIN called on a number of expert advisors to collaborate with Canadian institutions (Cupids Museum in Newfoundland and Maison Saint-Gabriel in Montreal) and foreign institutions (The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum in Florida and The British Museum in England) on innovative projects. An advisory committee on best practices in accessibility was born from this collaboration, supported by consultants such as SECA International Inc., IgniteStudios Inc. and Synthescape. In order to share the expertise that was acquired during the projects, we created a number of dependable reference tools and resources and made them available to our members.

Meaningful Results

As a result of these initiatives, museums will find a fact sheet on Creating User-Friendly Web Pages and an article, Create Accessible Museum Websites to learn how to use technologies and make their online content accessible. Furthermore, people with a visual or hearing impairment can visit a pioneering exhibit in the area of accessibility at virtualmuseum.ca: Valentine's Day: Love and Romance Through the Ages. Its creation was a significant breakthrough, highlighted in 2004 at the Technology and People with Disabilities conference in Los Angeles and in Muse magazine.

For us, accessibility also means the ability to easily find heritage content online. It was from this perspective that we recently adapted our three websites to better reflect modern Web practices and improve navigation and presentation. A powerful search engine highlights and provides links to the content explored by all visitors.

Complete list of persons who collaborated on the virtual exhibit Valentine's Day: Love and Romance Through the Ages:

Tools and Resources

Professional Exchange Virtual Museum of Canada

Also see: