Netflix-Projekt „Alles Licht das wir nicht sehen“

Titelseite zur Miniserie "Alles Licht das wir nicht sehen" der Netflix-Broschüre in Braille und Schwarzschrift

Ich bin über dieses Projekt besonders glücklich. Ich zeichne für die Brailleumsetzung und -Produktion verantwortlich. Das Besondere: Hier hat ein großer Konzern, Netflix, und eine großartige Agentur „einfach mal gemacht“ statt nur Charity und Sonntagsreden oder Pflichterfüllung mit Minimalaufwand. UND: Es ist begeisternd geworden! Schaut euch diese Ästhetik an! Projektmanagerin Saskia Alexandra Anton und Art Director Maarten Dijk bei Agentur XY haben ohne Abstriche an das Design oder an die Barrierefreiheit gearbeitet. Die Produkte strafen die Zweifler lügen! Danke! Ich war gern dabei! Tolle Leute.

🏆 Beim Type Directors Club New York gewinnen wir mit „The Unsceen“ für die Netflix Serie „All The Light We Cannot See“ in der Kategorie „Communication Design: Non-Traditional Media Publication“ und zudem „Judge’s Choice“.

Die Fotos sind alle von der ausführenden Agentur XY in Berlin mit ©2023

Innentitel der Netflix-Broschüre zur Miniserie

Blick in die Netflix-Broschüre in Braille und Schwarzschrift zur Miniserie

How to avoid additional costs for inclusion

I have been regularly involved with cost issues for over 13 years and have implemented many projects. Most of the consulting and design projects have been for museums, but also in the wider education sector or in architecture and product development. In recent years, the implementation of inclusive goals has gained momentum. As a rule, it succeeds best where diversity is demanded as a matter of course by one decision-maker person in the company or institution with commitment. The reaction of the uninvolved is quite openly or in thought almost always “ well, for these few people we should spend so much money? Who pays the costs for inclusion?“.

I have an answer for that. It’s below, but you have to read the few lines in between to interpret it. I thought about it for a long time and finally found the clue to the problem within the question itself. After all, inclusion is not actually in question because of the cost, but, and this is my analysis, because it is not taken for granted. By „taken for granted,“ I mean something like laying power lines when you build a house. You use it to make sure the building is accessible, in some sense barrier-free, through lighting – especially if you’re going to use it at night. And you use it to operate your assistive devices, such as washing machines and heating, for people whose own energy is not sufficient for all tasks. So without electricity, the people who use the building would be very handicapped.

For the following reasons, among others, Germany is probably also in last place in the EU comparison when it comes to the implementation of the specifications by the EU and the UN. We usually don’t live with our parents or grandparents in the same house and experience every day how exhausting it is to get old once our legs and eyes don’t work anymore. We did not go to the same class with the (10%!) children who were and are sent to „special“ schools simply because of physical characteristics. That’s why we don’t know them and aren’t friends with them. That is why we have not learned to consider that they also are part of us and that it must be indisputable that all people can live as self-determined and cohabited as possible. We have not learned this. We have to make up for it, and we have a lot of catching up to do.

Now to the answer promised above, where does the money come from?
You will find it in the total budget (and not even hidden). Here’s how: When you cost a project, you require all service providers and internal project participants to „think of the power lines for your house up front.“ You will rightly expect this of all professionals in every trade involved in building a house. It’s unthinkable to do otherwise.
Expect it just as naturally that your partners think inclusively and with everyone in mind; that they already set the course in the conception and – if necessary with the involvement of consultants and experts – revise the non-inclusive ideas, because insufficient, once again to find better solutions.
If your calculation exceeds the budget as a result, the budget is set too low or elaborate creative solutions together to make changes to material, scope, size, execution, duration, etc., in order to achieve your goal.
That’s the way it’s always been. In the past, however, it was usually because you didn’t take various things into account (see above). You will all agree that human rights are non-negotiable, but maybe other things are.

And it works! With fantastic and unique results that inspire project participants and users. I know, because I have accompanied some teams in their work to the goal with team meetings, workshops and conception as well as consulting.

The TellDing acoustic information and guidance system in Leipzig's Grassi Museum

TellDing im Grassimuseum

At several locations and stations within the museum building and the exhibition, visitors are now informed acoustically about what they are facing or where and how they can get further. The TellDing system responds with different content depending on the visitor’s language or information needs. Without a cell phone or app, without an audio guide to take along. You simply wear a lanyard with an electronic entrance ticket (TellDing avatar) around your neck. The TellDing then provides the appropriate information at the elevator or exhibit or guides blind visitors to it.

Das Erklärvideo zeigt den TellDing Avatar

The explanatory video in the museum shows the TellDing avatar. Children receive different or differently prepared content than adult, foreign-language, blind or disabled visitors. Also, the distance from which the audio message is output may differ depending on the user:in. The elevator should announce itself to a blind visitor from a distance, while the exhibit will not output the description until it is in close proximity. More information can be found on the website TellDing.com

Die Installation beinhaltet das Gerät und einen kleinen Lautsprecher

The installation includes the device and a small speaker

Finally a standardized and tactilely and visually understandable symbol for escape routes and emergency exits for tactile plans.

No question, the challenge is immense and so is the responsibility. An internationally understandable symbol was sought that speaks for itself tactilely and also visually. Orientation plans are a shared aid for both sighted and blind people. Particularly in an emergency, information must be grasped quickly. Until now, a sign has been missing from industrial standards and current draft standards. Thus, we have developed a new sign in recent weeks and submitted it to the commission.

 

Symbol für Fluchtweg Notausgang taktile Pläne
The possible new international optical and tactile symbol for tactile orientation plans in buildings.

It plays a significant role for the speed if symbols are already learned and do not have to be reinterpreted. The symbol for the emergency exit and escape route must indicate a clear direction and it must be possible to distinguish it from the ordinary exit. Even illiterate people and people speaking foreign languages should have no difficulty with this.

Thus, we have used the X for “ exit“, „out“, „away“ as the lowest common denominator, and the large directional arrow on green, which is also known from the visual world. In the application in the plan, the symbol is placed rotated in the direction of escape. The white elements are tactile and the green area is to be printed visually only. The minimum height is 12 mm (green frame)!

The TellDing® comes to the GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig

An exhibition should be a multimedia experience and accessible to all. No complex installations will be made and no app or devices are necessary.

The TellDing® system, developed by me, reverses the technical bring and is exactly for this reason extremely interesting and without alternative for certain applications!

The task:

An object should 1. be able to be found only by hearing (in the dark or for blind visitors:inside).

2. the object should identify itself and provide audio or video.

The users do not need 3. a device or an app.

Use cases:

The exhibits in the exhibition are recorded.
A door, an elevator, the stairs, the toilet – i.e. the destination guidance.
The room text or ambient sound should be played.

The visitor does not need the guide or the smartphone in his hand. The intelligence is in the device at the exhibit or at the POI (such as doors, elevator, room text). It recognizes what it should offer him/her on the basis of an element carried by the visitor on the lanyard.

An audio information and guidance system entirely without an app. Accessibility fast and inexpensive.

TellDing ist ein Plug & Play Audioguide

A system informs your visitors without any effort.

TellDing is installed in the museum at the exhibit, doors and stairs, room information, etc. The visitor approaches the corresponding information point or exhibit with his visitor’s card (entrance ticket) and receives audio information in his native language. Blind visitors get detailed audio description. As a talking point, the TellDing even helps blind visitors find the object or door or elevator by simply allowing the visitor to follow the audio source. Ingeniously simple! And no great cost to set up.

Find out about possibilities and costs at www.tellding.com

tellding-avatar-lanyards

Hands free! in museums, at work or at school with the canesitter

Imagine that you need both hands available, but unfortunately one hand is always busy holding or pinching something. If you need a white cane for protection and want to get rid of it temporarily at every exhibit in the museum or at the voting booth for writing, or when changing in the gym, you are usually looking in vain. That’s why I developed the Canesitter. A quick clamp that can be adapted to any color design, suitable for any white cane.

Der Langstockhalter an einem Museumsexponat

Compact, shapely, durable, inexpensive and available in dozens of colour combinations.

canesitter Langstockhalter
über 60 Farbkombinationen sind möglich

For further information and ordering please contact service@canesitter.com. 

Here you can find more info: canesitter.com

Der Langstockhalter an einem Exponatetisch im Museum

The standard module: Housing dark grey, clamp black costs 24,99€ incl. VAT. All other colours and combinations cost 29,75€ incl. VAT. The delivery time is currently about two weeks.

 

 

Das nationale Umsetzungsgesetz zum EAA für private Unternehmen

Eine unmittelbare Verpflichtung der privaten Unternehmen in Deutschland ergibt sich erst aus der nationalen Gesetzgebung. Dennoch ist es für Unternehmen heute schon wichtig und vorausschauend, sich auf die Rechtsentwicklung einzustellen.

Die Regelung gilt für Produkte, die nach dem 28. Juni 2025 in Verkehr gebracht, und Dienstleistungen, die nach dem 28. Juni 2025 erbracht werden.

Was ist also demnächst barrierefrei zu gestalten?

Die Richtlinie verpflichtet unter anderem, den gesamten Online-Handel barrierefrei zu gestalten. Lediglich Kleinstunternehmen, die weniger als zehn Beschäftigte und höchstens einen Jahresumsatz oder eine Jahresbilanzsumme von 2 Millionen Euro haben, sind ausgenommen.

Außerdem müssen Hardware-Systeme für die Benutzer/-innen barrierefrei gestaltet werden und zwar einschließlich der Oberflächen bzw. Schnittstellen wie Betriebssysteme. Also alle Computer, Smartphones und Tablets sowie natürlich Bestell- oder Zahlungsterminals, die sich in einer realen Verkaufsstelle befinden (natürlich auch ein Kartenlesegerät im Supermarkt oder auch eine Parkuhr im öffentlichen Raum).

Weitere Verpflichtungen zur barrierefreien Gestaltung betreffen:

  • Bankdienstleistungen, einschließlich Geldautomaten, worunter auch Bankautomaten zu verstehen sind
  • die elektronische Kommunikation
  • den Zugang zu audiovisuellen Medien.  Zu den audiovisuellen Medien zählen nicht nur die audiovisuellen Angebote aller öffentlich-rechtlichen sondern auch die der privaten Fernsehanstalten.
  • Video-on-Demand-Angebote (Fernsehen auf Abruf), die von internationalen Streaming-Diensten verbreitet werden
  • die Barrierefreiheit audiovisueller Mediendienste werden in einer eigenen Richtlinie geregelt (2018/1808).
  • E-Books
  • Aspekte der Personenverkehrsdienste bezogen auf alle vier Verkehrsträger: Flug, Bahn, Bus und Schiff.

 

Welche Anforderungen sind umzusetzen?

  • Grundverständnis = es geht um maximale Nutzung durch Menschen mit Behinderungen, nicht um Gleichberechtigung
  • Die bauliche Umwelt, in der Dienstleistungen erbracht werden, die von der Richtlinie erfasst werden, müssen den Barrierefreiheitsanforderungen genügen

    Vorgaben für die nationale Umsetzung

    • Die Richtlinie ist bis zum 28. Juni 2022 in nationales Recht umzusetzen
    • Die deutschen Gesetze müssen ab dem 28. Juli 2025 angewandt werden

How helpful is Braille lettering?

Coca Cola mit Punktschrift

We often hear that question. Some time ago, the news was spread that hardly anyone still needs or learns Braille today because there are audio books and voice output on computers and smartphones. It is also repeatedly stated that most blind people are not capable of reading and writing Braille at all.

What is true and what is wrong? Here we look at facts.

Only apparently the age structure of blind people is the same as that of sighted people. But that is not true. As almost everyone’s eyesight declines over the course of their lives and some people even become very poor, older people are often classified as severely visually impaired or blind. Some go blind due to an accident, macular degeneration or inflammation of the eyes. There are many causes of visual impairment. Most occur in the course of life and not at birth. Thus the age pyramid is turned upside down in blind people.

What does this have to do with literacy?

While every blind child goes to school and learns to read and write with Braille, this is of course not the case for older people. They do not go to school, but in the best case they do trainings. Everyone can learn Braille, but not everyone wants to.  Some people don’t have the strength or motivation to learn Braille when they get older. That is regrettable but a fact. Older people do not find it so easy to learn and they have not developed the sensitivity in their fingers to keep the points apart. They have to acquire the sensitivity first. This is more difficult with increasing age. Most people who are over 50 years old and then go blind fall off the grid. So they become illiterate in old age. Here, large, palpably raised fonts help to highlight keywords. This is called profile writing or pyramid writing. However, reading them takes an extremely long time and is no alternative to Braille. However, it is the only form of readable font for this group. In the USA an experiment with fatal consequences was carried out when in the 90s it was believed that audio output on the computer was sufficient. Braille was not taught for years. A whole generation of blind Americans were thus deprived of their future. None of these people find a job on the regular job market as illiterates. Today, blind students are taught to read and write again at all schools. The children have a right to it like every seeing child.

Who can do Braille? How many are there?

All children who are born blind or blind in the first 16 years of life learn Braille reading and writing at school. After that, braille learning is optional, but almost everyone who goes blind under the age of 50 learns braille! Together these are about a third, that is roughly 50,000 people in Germany.

Is braille then worthwhile?

Definitely and without reservation, yes! Because a world without written information, without reading and writing leads inevitably to illiteracy and thus to absolute lack of opportunity on the job market and in the further training and complicates the participation in the social life completely substantially. For the group of blind people, not offering braille is often a lack of information and dependence on those who see by chance. Both are unacceptable for human rights and the individual. The question of the absolute number of beneficiaries is often asked in order to ask whether this can be justified financially. With the same argument one would have to question elevators, escalators, cycle paths, roads and the Internet in more remote areas and much more. Some of these would not have no alternative – Braille, on the other hand, does. „But I have never had a blind visitor here before“ is of course the result of the lacking or inadequate offer. Why should a blind person go to a museum where there is nothing for him except an overview map and an audio guide?

How to do the right thing?

The prerequisite for the chance of participation is that information is actually provided in Braille. Everywhere and as much as possible. Compared to visual communication, however, it remains a fraction. This is the sign we have to set. This sign is a non-negotiable must if one speaks of an inclusive society. A society in which we also want to live when we are old or have temporary impairments, permanent disabilities ourselves or with relatives. We all want to continue to be able to make our contribution to working life and family life and not be excluded.

Understood. And where should Braille be used?

Wherever it makes it easier or even impossible to distinguish between products. Where the autonomy of a blind person is made possible by receiving information or being able to operate devices without being forced to ask someone (of course he is still free). Where education and knowledge transfer becomes possible. Where orientation is made easier.

Untersuchungen zeigen, dass inklusives Design die Kundenreichweite um das Vierfache steigern kann

Studien, die vom Centre for Inclusive Design in Zusammenarbeit mit Adobe und Microsoft durchgeführt wurden, haben ergeben, dass Produkte und Dienstleistungen, die auf die gesamte Breite der Bedürfnisse von Menschen zugeschnitten sind, das Vierfache der Zahl der Nutzer erreichen können.

Inklusionsdenken früh in die Konzeptphase einbeziehen, verhindert Zusatzkosten

„Untersuchungen zeigen, dass inklusives Design die Kundenreichweite um das Vierfache steigern kann“ weiterlesen