Te Papa NZSL Mobile Guide - Round 4 recipient

The Te Papa NZSL Mobile Guide is a new mobile-optimised web application for Deaf visitors and online audiences. Access it now on your phone, iPad, or tablet at tepapa.nz/nzsl  external 

The Te Papa NZSL Mobile Guide was planned, developed, and produced by Te Papa working closely with the Deaf community including through creative co-design and User Experience Design testing, and including with support from Deaf Aotearoa and Arts Access Aotearoa; with creative NZSL video production and Deaf presenter talent casting from Deafradio; and with guidance and Deaf consultancy services from Museums and Heritage professional Theresa Cooper.

The Te Papa NZSL Mobile Guide includes two experiences:

What’s at Te Papa provides visitors with orientation information and introductions to some of Te Papa’s permanent exhibitions, including Te Taiao Nature; Gallipoli: the scale of our war; Toi Art; and Rongomaraeroa – the marae that all cultures can feel at home on.  http://tepapa.nz/nzslintro  external  

Take a Tour provides visitors with a guided tour of some Te Papa’s top attractions, including: Waharoa (gateway); Moa and Haast’s eagle; Earthquake House; Colossal squid; Britten V1000 motorcycle; and Phar Lap.

http://tepapa.nz/nzsltour  external 

When you next visit, you’ll see promotional and on-boarding print graphics installed throughout the museum that show which exhibits have NZSL content on the Mobile Guide. You can use the QR code printed on the graphic to go straight to the content, or simply type in the short URLs provided.

When you arrive at Te Papa, you’ll see a Welcome video and an Orientation video playing on screens in the foyers on level 1 and 2. These were also created as part of this project.

And now there’s NZSL content on the Te Papa website to help you plan your visit:  https://tepapa.nz/nzsl-plan-your-visit external

Te Papa NZSL Mobile Guide project marks the beginning of a new phase of development and community engagement towards increasing accessibility at Te Papa.

This project has raised Deaf culture and language awareness with staff at Te Papa, and through this project we’ve developed tools such as best practice guidelines for when we are developing content for translation into NZSL in the future.

We’ve learned a lot from this project and we’ll keep working with the Deaf community, Deaf organisations, Deaf professionals, and Deaf businesses as part of our goal of continuous improvement of accessibility at Te Papa. And, as well, we’ve already begun sharing what we’ve learned with the wider sector.