Page 163 - AC/E Digital Culture Annual Report

With these guides, visitors can choose the options best suited to their needs and interests and design customised tours, as well as obtaining full information about the heritage assets before, during and after the visit. They are thereforean e ective means of dissemination, which is a fundamental and increasingly priority task in the day-to-day functioning of heritage institutions.Áppside projectPromoting accessibility is the main purposeof the Áppside project,177 which is focused on creating applications for mobile guides that enhance the experience of visitors to citieswith unique heritage sites and improve tours of museum galleries by providing additional infor- mation on the objects. This is a joint initiative developed as part of the Accessible Museums project of the Fundación Orange178 and GVAM,179 a company specialised in creating content for personal guides. As is typical of mobile guides, these are available in several languages and o er di erent routes or theme-based tours that allow visitors to personalise the content in accordance with their own interests. The varied multimedia content o ered includes interactive maps, com- mentaries, videos and infographics. The most prominent feature of the design and creation of the various apps developed at Áppside is their accessibility to people with impaired sight or hearing, as they incorporate audiodescriptions, subtitles and sign language – an essential means of engaging with a larger number of visitors to heritage and cultural sites.So far they have designed twenty or so apps. That of Tarragona, World Heritage City, features four routes accessible to people with impaired sight or hearing. That of Santiago de Compos- tela, World Heritage City, includes four routes: Santiago inside the walls, Santiago outside the walls, a culinary tour and an accessible route. And the guide to the city of San Cristobal de La Laguna (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) includes four thematic tours: Ruta de los Encuentros (social gathering places), Ruta de las Musas (art), RutaSacra (buildings from the period of the Crown of Castile) and Ruta Monumental (architecture). All the apps can be downloaded free of charge from the digital downloading platforms and can be used by visitors on their mobile devices, as well as by cultural institutions that provide devices for visitor use.Figure 14 - Content on Tarragone amphitheatre in sign language. App Tarragona Accesible. Screenshot. Source: Tarragona AccesibleZona Arqueológica de Paquimé app (Mexico)The Zona Arqueológica de Paquim 180 app is designed to provide information to visitors to the archaeological site of Paquim , an ancient pre-Hispanic settlement in the state of Chihua- hua (Mexico).The app was developed by the Centro Cultural Paquim in collaboration with the INAH and the Centro de Estudios Tecnológicos, Industriales y de Servicios (Cetis).Available since 2016, it brings together several features that enable visitors to organise their visit beforehand, while there, and afterwards. It provides information put together by archaeolo- gists (along with explanatory videos in sign language) on contact details, visiting times and even a map allowing potential visitors to locate the settlement and work out how to get there using Google Maps. Other content such as an audioguide, QR codes and a 360-degree tour with commentary on the various structuresAC/E DIGITAL CULTURE ANNUAL REPORT 2017163The use of digital technologies in the conservation, analysis and dissemination of cultural heritage