A View of Mexico for all: how Mia made José María Velasco accessible
Mia expands the reach of one of Mexico's most influential artists.
At a glance
- Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Art
- Location: Minneapolis, MN
- Segment: Fine art museums
- Exhibitions: José María Velasco: A View of Mexico and Sopheap Pich: In the Presence Of
- Audiences: Non-English speaking, visually-impaired, seniors, mobility-challenged, learning-impaired, socially-anxious, recordkeepers, crowd-avoidant
- Features: Scalable accessibility, multilingual text, visual accessibility, screenreader support, content acquisition
Overcoming barriers
| Challenge | Resolution |
|---|---|
| Varied audience access needs | Frictionless BYOD accessibility (no app iOS, instant download Android) |
| Alienating low-vision guests | Hyperlegible text, integrated screen-reader support |
| Translation costs and language selection | Scalable multilingual text |
| Reading labels through crowds | Tap-to-acquire, read in peace |
| Clean aesthetic | Color-matched Capption indicators |
Committed to accessibility
Mia is Minnesota's premiere arts institution, recognized globally for its vast, culturally-diverse collection. Equally impressive, Mia's commitment to public accessibility runs so deep that general admission is completely free.
Naturally, Mia strives to fulfill its commitment to accessibility by improving the individual visitor experience. Traditional Mia object labels are small and discreet to avoid disrupting a gallery's appearance, distracting from its works, or occupying precious space that could otherwise display art. Aging or impaired eyes find them hard to read when they're in view. Non-English speakers don't even bother.
With a once-in-a-generation exhibit on the horizon, Mia needed a way to include low-vision and non-English speaking guests without printing colossal labels or tainting its aesthetic.
José María Velasco: A View of Mexico
José María Velasco's art accurately documents Mexico's 19th century natural and industrial transformation, opening a unique and influential window into Mexican identity, history, and culture. Since it rarely travels outside of Mexico, Mia refused to let this exhibit be anything less than perfect.
Instead of gaudy QR codes, slow websites, or stacks of paper, Mia turned to Capption. We enabled access, sent over indicator artwork, and passed along encoding instructions. Mia staff handled the rest with aplomb, converting their interpretive wisdom into low-friction digitized accessibility. Aside from some encoding hiccups (later permanently solved by our shake-to-encode feature), our installation process integrated smoothly into Mia's exhibit installation project. After Mia printed the indicators, Velasco was Capptioned in two total hours—minimal effort for such a gorgeous and powerful result.
Mexican heritage made beautifully accessible
In a single ~3 month period in a single gallery, Mia helped over 138 visitors access the context behind Velasco's works and influence. And that was during the traffic-reducing ICE protests in Minneapolis.
"This was all really easy compared to anything else we do to prepare an exhibit!"
—Head of Audience Project Management at Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Velasco exhibit stat highlights:
- Duration: ~14 weeks
- Unique visitors: >138
- Unique views: ~771
- Engagement depth: 5.5 views/user
- Most common languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Chinese
- Accessibility use: 32%
- Screenreader usage: 10% one month! (usually ~4–5%)
Go further
- Exhibit Capptions: Examples from A View of Mexico: The Goatherd of San Ángel, 1861, Valley of Mexico, 1875, and The Great Comet of 1882, 1910.
- Learn more: Exhibition Guide for José María Velasco: A View of Mexico at Mia