In the context of an Erasmus+ International Mobility Programme, Dr. Tsvi Kuflik, Professor of Information Systems at the University of Haifa, will visit the Open University of Cyprus (OUC) for a weekly series of seminars. On Tuesday, 20 June 2023 at 12:00 (GMT+3), the OUC and the CYENS Center of Excellence will host a hybrid open seminar entitled “Designing for Accessibility in Cultural Heritage – Exploring Tangible Technologies for Enhancing the Museum Visit Experience for Blind Visitors”. The event will be broadcasted live through TEAMS: https://tinyurl.com/yw2kufb5
The development of 3D scanning and printing technologies opened new opportunities for improving the engagement of visually impaired people in general and blind people in specific, when experiencing cultural heritage. However, in spite of numerous recent studies, developing cultural heritage experience for visually impaired visitors is not straightforward, and multiple factors, including knowledge about the available opportunities, desires, barriers, and abilities affect their participation. In this seminar, Dr Kuflik will present an approach for exploring techniques for designing and developing such experiences in the framework of a graduate multidisciplinary course with active involvement of museum staff, and visually impaired visitors with the aim of making the cultural heritage accessible according to the universal design principles to enhance the museum visit experience of blind people.
Tsvi Kuflik is full professor of Information Systems at the Information Systems Department of the University of Haifa, Israel. He received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Computer Science and PhD in Information Systems from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Prior to that, he has gained considerable industrial experience as software developer, team leader and project manager for about 20 years. After joining the University of Haifa in 2004, his research has focused on Intelligent User Interfaces, and especially on supporting individuals and groups in Ubiquitous Computing Environments and, more specifically, on problems related to Ubiquitous User Modeling. In recent years, Professor Kuflik has started to work also on algorithmic transparency – how to make systems that apply AI techniques understandable to their users. He is also working on digital humanities – applying state of the art ICT to humanities research. He is a distinguished ACM scientist and a senior IEEE member.
