blind.wiki*EDU is a community-based smartphone project that invites Students who are blind or partially sighted to map their findings of their EHEA Campuses and cities.
By sharing geolocated audio recordings via the blind.wiki*EDU smartphone app, EHEA Students create a collective map of their surroundings with accessibility tips, storytelling posts, sensory impressions and soundscapes.
Cross-border/international
Italy
Germany
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Spain
Member State(s), Western Balkans and other countries: Poland
2024 European Higher Education Area
2023 Barcelona/Spain
2022 São Paulo/Brazil
2020 Valencia/Spain
2017 Biennale di Venezia/Italy
2016 Wrocław/Poland
2016 Berlin Biennale/Germany
2015 Sydney/Australia
2014-2015 Roma/Italy
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
Wroclaw European Capital of Culture, Poland 2016
Yes
Golden Nika Digital Communities Prix Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria 2006
Yes
As individual(s) in partnership with organisation(s)
First name: Antoni Last name: Abad Gender: Male Please describe the type of organization(s) you work in partnership with: Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona Nationality: Spain Function: Community-engaged artist, organizer, mediator Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Aragó 399, 4, 1 Town: Barcelona Postal code: 08013 Country: Spain Direct Tel:+34 609 35 22 26 E-mail:abadantoni@gmail.com Website:https://blind.wiki
URL:https://www.instagram.com/antoni__abad/ Social media handle and associated hashtag(s): @antoni__abad / blindwiki, blind, visually impaired, community, smartphone, socially-engaged-art, Students, friends, campuses, EHEA
blind.wiki*EDU [bw*EDU] is an interactive, community-based smartphone project that invites the blind and visually impaired Students in the European Higher Education Area to share their own news and opinions on the difficulties and facilities they find in their day-to-day lives. The pilot will hold not only information on barriers and accommodations, but will also be a repository for storytelling posts, designed to build a more nuanced location-specific overview of the University Campuses and urban facilities, as experienced by visually impaired Students.
The smartphone app will allow Students to record site-specific audio and to immediately publish it to the [bw*EDU] platform. Visually impaired and sighted Students will have the opportunity to walk through their Campuses, receiving in their smartphones on-site audio recordings that other Students have previously published and tagged. The blind community benefits from the project's findings, while raising social awareness on the visually impaired daily routine.
Designed-for-All to reflect the urban landscape as experienced by people with visual diversity, the [bw*EDU] platform provides the necessary basis for the collaborative creation of a Public Cloud Cartography of the Unseen.
[bw*EDU] will be dynamized in weekly participant’s gatherings, workshops and group mapping expeditions, fostering the creation of permanent personal bonds between Students and strengthening local Nodes in each city.
Based on the previous blind.wiki international platform (2014 -2022), the [bw*EDU] pilot will be developed in Barcelona in 2023, where visually impaired and sighted Students will integrate three [bw*EDU] Nodes at Universitat Pompeu Fabra Campuses. The resulting prototype will be deployed in the European Higher Education Area in 2024, fostering the international mobility, solidarity and friendship of Students with vision loss.
Accessibility > An European smartphone community of Students with vision loss Unveiling the Unseen.
Inclusive co-creation > An European augmented reality audio map by visually impaired and sighted Students.
Sustainability > Students generously share their campus and city wisdom with all citizens, both online and on-site.
Affordability > The blind.wiki app is free for everyone and has been developed since 2014 with public funding from a wide range of cultural and social institutions.
Socially engaged Art > Beyond barriers, Students telling stories of people and place.
Sustainability and network dissemination.
The experience acquired by the initial groups is the starting point from which the [bw*EDU] project expands through the city. Once the first Students are familiar with the device, the app, the website and the methodology, they can expand the network through their friends and associations, thus transferring their knowhow. In this way, the project expands in space and time, potentially creating new Nodes in the cities of the European Higher Education Area [EHEA].
Sustainability and replicability of the project are based on a solid cloud platform and a permanently updated smartphone app which foster the enthusiasm and involvement of the participating Students.
The free app, as well as the EDUROAM network, and the low price of data connection rates across Europe facilitate the sustainability of the platform.
The aesthetics of what cannot be seen.
From the experience and knowledge accumulated since 2015 in previous blind.wiki projects in Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain, Australia and Brazil, it can be deduced that these experiences are generating, above all, the sense of belonging to a community.
These projects were always dynamized in weekly participant’s gatherings, workshops and group mapping expeditions. The face-to-face aspect of these meetings allowed the creation of permanent personal bonds between project Participants, that are complementary to the online day-to-day interactions.
The inclusive audio map created by visually impaired Participants and sighted friends, becomes accessible from both the [bw*EDU] website, as well as in the geolocations where the audio files were recorded. It translates into a repository of experiences and opinions, as well as creating a unique sensory archive of their particular urban perception through the senses of touch, smell, taste and hearing. Note here the great relevance of these sensory impressions for the orientation and enjoyment in urban environments of citizens with vision diversity.
Storytelling interventions are manifested through stories, poetry, singing, interviews, anecdotes, jokes, conflicts, setbacks... Chronicles of interactions with staff at offices, transports, cafeterias, restaurants, as well as interactions with sighted peers. The only limit to the content being published is the Students' own imagination.
Their particular perception of the Unseen, becomes accessible to the sighted crowd, who probably ignore the community with vision loss experience of the Campuses and urban public space. A rich soundscape that unveils a unique collective knowledge of what these citizens cannot see.
The new [bw*EDU] pilot development of the smartphone application and website will remain faithful to the Design-for-All principles that have been applied to blind.wiki software platform and UX since 2015.
[bw*EDU] creates active communities with visually impaired Students, that sighted friends and colleagues are welcome to join, by joining regular meetings, workshops and collective mapping expeditions, with the goal of creating the European [bw*EDU] audio map of the Unseen.
Since the start of the blind.wiki projects in 2015, the groups have held regular editorial boards, in which participants propose, debate and decide on the common matters to be addressed in their audio posts. The collective intelligence of the groups constitute the fundamental axis of the platform.
The project proposes an innovative societal model in which the voice of a minority is amplified to be heard by the rest of society.
Although the project seeks to encourage the European mobility of visually impaired students, visually impaired and sighted citizens will also benefit from the [bw*EDU] audio map in their own cities or when visiting foreign countries.
Accessibility, inclusion, affordability, design-for-all and sustainability, have always been central concerns of the previous blind.wiki platform, and are crucial to the new pilot development.
The main beneficiaries of the [bw*EDU] proposal are Students with vision loss, as they can find out, prior to their displacement, the accessibility situation of the destination cities.
A crucial hallmark of the project consists on the development of a chat platform to facilitate the communication between the different remote [bw*EDU] Nodes and Students, which visiting Alumni will be able to use, establishing prior ties with the communities of their destination cities.
The [bw*EDU] Nodes integrating sighted and visually impaired Students, where the diversity of experiences and perceptions, translates into a fruitful inclusive environment.
Local Blind associations would also benefit from [bw*EDU] maps in addition to being able to contribute their own posts, in addition to helping locate visually impaired Students in Universities.
Local citizens and tourists would also appreciate both the storytelling and accessibility data featured on the augmented reality public maps of the Unseen.
The blind.wiki*EDU pilot in Barcelona will be developed during 2023 with the support of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Three Students' Nodes will be created in the University Campuses.
The previous blind.wiki platform was initially developed during 2014-2015 at the Spanish Academy in Rome. From 2016, projects were developed in Australia, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain and, last August, in Brazil. These projects were supported by various institutions and organisations:
2014-2015 ROME
Academia de España en Roma, Unione Italiana dei Ciechi e degli Ipovedenti, La Sapienza Università di Roma, Cooperación Española, RomaEuropa Festival.
2015 SYDNEY
Art & About, Sydney Ideas, Vision Australia, Instituto Cervantes in Sydney, University of Sydney, Acción Cultural Española, Institut Ramon Llull, Embassy of Spain in Australia, Centre for Disability Research and Policy, University of Sydney.
2016 BERLIN
Berlin Biennale, Institut Ramon Llull, Acción Cultural Española, Embassy of Spain in Germany, Cooperación Española.
2016 WROCLAW
Wrocław 2016/Europejska Stolica Kultury, European Capital of Culture 2016, Ministerstwo Kultury i Dziedzictwa Narodowego, Fundacja Eudajmonia, Fundacja Katarynka.
2017 VENICE
Biennale di Venezia Eventi Collaterali, Institut Ramon Llull, Unione Italiana dei Ciechi e degli Ipovedenti, Comune di Venezia, Associació Discapacitat Visual de Catalunya, Associació Catalana per la Integració del Cec.
2020 VALENCIA
Festival 10 Sentidos, València City Council, Las Naves, Associació de Veïns i Veïnes Cabanyal-Canyamelar, Universitat Politècnica de València.
2022 SÃO PAULO
Secretaria da Cultura do Governo do Estado de São Paulo, Prefeitura da Cidade de São Paulo, Embaixada da Espanha no Brasil, Fundação Dorina Nowill, Fundação Laramara, Instituto Moreira Salles, Itaú Cultural, Japan House, Centro Cultural São Paulo, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo.
The development of the blind.wiki internet database architecture and the app for smartphones since 2015, has always been done following the participants user experience and listening their opinions and proposals. A rich and inspiring process where decisions were made collectively.
A good example is the incorporation of the proposal of the participant Luciano Domenicalli during the first project in Rome: to create a section in the smartphone app, from which to check the blind.wiki audio map of other areas of the city.
It was a crucial contribution to the development of the app, which from then on included not only the function of making inquiries from other neighborhoods, but also from cities.
A concept of social software, where participants, app and web programmers, and organizers, interact with the goal of building together a Design-for-All and efficient platform.
Sharing experience and knowledge for the development of the common good.
blind.wiki*EDU is not a social network. Absolutely discards advertising and has no commercial interests. It is not a place for remote gossip and self promotion, but a network conceived to amplify the voice of a minority.
blind.wiki*EDU is a non profit Citizen Network, where participating students constitute local nodes to disseminate their experience, collective knowledge and sensory perception of urban space.
blind.wiki*EDU promotes the creation of urban accessibility solutions, as well as the improvement of existing facilities, fostering the blind and visually impaired Students mobility in the European Higher Education Area.
blind.wiki*EDU generously offers the augmented reality audio map collaboratively created by all city Nodes, offering it to all visually impaired and sighted citizens.
Replicability is a fundamental core principle of blind.wiki. The greater the number of participants from different Campuses, the better and more efficient the mobility of EHEA blind Students with visual diversity will be. The more diverse their contributions, the richer the knowledge landscape of the collaborative audio map will be.
Starting point: network dissemination
The experience acquired by the group in initial workshops is the starting point from which [bw*EDU] expands through the campuses and cities. Once the initial Students are familiar with the device, the app, the website and the methodology, they can expand the network through their friends and blind associations, thus transferring their knowhow in order to disseminate the network. In this way, the project expands in space and time, potentially becoming a permanent platform in the European Higher Education Area.
Towards an International Network based on EHEA
The blind.wiki website and mobile app will be technically upgraded in order to support a student’s network allowing Alumni to map stories, orientation sensory data, and the accessibility situation in their Campuses and cities. The site will also enable Students and associations to organize as activists and to lobby for increased and improved way-finding facilities.
The [bw*EDU] pilot in Barcelona aims to become an international European network where people with visual impairments have the opportunity to analyze, discuss, share and compare the accessibility situation of the cities where they reside and those to which they move to in Erasmus-type programs.
The collective knowledge generated by [bw*EDU] will contribute to the database of the Inclusive Mobility EU, the European platform about inclusion and support services offered by higher education institutions, national agencies and ministries for education to international students.
Visually impaired and sighted Students are invited to an initial informative meeting, where experiences and opinions are exchanged and a decision is made on the creation of a new Node. Students install the [bw*EDU] app on their smartphones and post their first audio recordings on the platform. The first mapping expedition of the just created Node is scheduled for the weekend. So the [bw*EDU] project has just started when the Participants start posting from their Campuses and surroundings.
In regular editorial meetings Students propose, debate and decide on the common matters to be addressed in their audio posts. The collective intelligence of the group constitutes a fundamental axis of the platform.
Based on each Node student's proposals, group mapping expeditions are regularly organized on the streets, as well as visits to museums, cultural centres, blind and neighborhood associations, etc. The groups meet Nodes based in other local Universities and joint mapping expeditions are organized as well.
Guided by Students with vision loss, urban tours would be organized, that citizens are invited to attend.
Groups of research may be organized to analyze, discuss and compare the accessibility situation of different Campuses. Communication and cooperation with Nodes based in other cities may be established through the [bw*EDU] chat platform.
[bw*EDU] is a network of local Nodes, where University Students collaboratively create an European augmented reality audio map. Local Student Nodes that generously contribute their knowledge to the Global Audience.
2023 April > November: Pilot in Barcelona
- Three Nodes of Students are created, one on each Campus of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.
- Weekly meetings and mapping collective expeditions are organized.
Programmers develop the following items:
- SERVER/ Speech-to-text transcription protocol.
- SERVER/ Artificial Intelligence is implemented to extract tags out of transcriptions.
- SERVER/ Device for assigning IA tags to their corresponding recordings.
- APP: Reduction of the sequence of recording and publishing a post from the actual six interactions, to just two touches on the smartphone's screen .
- APP: Implementation of voice commands to launch the app, record audio and post the recording.
Students and programmers meet once a month. UX experience and ideas are analyzed. The proposals approved by the group are implemented.
2023 December > Conclusions of the development of the pilot:
- Public and media presentation of the resulting augmented reality audio map.
- Tours guided by visually impaired Students are offered to attendees.
2024 January > blind.wiki*EDU is ready to be implemented in the European Higher Education Area.
All Nodes will organize specific workshops to analyze and discuss the GreenComp Conceptual Reference Model. A selection of specific taxonomic tags will be created to be used by Students in sensory posts dedicated to the environment. Group expeditions exclusively dedicated to sustainability challenges are organized, actively contributing to improving prospects for the community and the planet.
The resulting audio cloud aspires to contribute critical thinking, through the audio recordings dedicated by the Students and their corresponding text transcripts, to open environmental databases.
