PROJECT NR: 2020-1-IT02–KA227–SCH–095549

At the end of 2020 Solidarietà e Lavoro presented an innovative project entitled “A.A.C.cessible Culture: museums for everyone developing the Alternative Augmentative Communication Tools/ A.A.C.C”, on the call ERASMUS + KA2 PARTNERSHIPS FOR CREATIVITY in the field of school education, promoted to respond to the educational challenges resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This project aims to make culture, and in particular museum contents, accessible to people with communication deficits to let them fully experience the cultural dimension through edutainment using Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) strategies. AACC will last 24 months – from 01 April 2021 to 31 March 2023 – and it will be realized with the collaboration of 7 partners. from 6 European countries in which the use of AAC is still not widespread.

Priorities identified:
1)“Skills development and inclusion through creativity and the arts”;
2) “Tackling early school leaving and disadvantage”;
3)“Supporting educators, youth workers, educational leaders and support staff”.
The project wants to define a team of operators involved in education and culture with professional preparation and proficiencies to design specific paths and tools for visits, events, workshops using and translating the information materials into the most appropriate AAC strategies. These operators will thus respond to the specific requests of museums, operators in the sector, and all those who show interest in making the museum a place accessible to all guests.

Project’s purpose

SeL in its thirty years of experience in the cultural services sector has found in Italy general unpreparedness to respond to the communication needs of guests with communication deficits and, at the same time, a growing demand for tools and solutions from associations, families, and educational institutions.

For years, museums promoted projects aiming to overcome architectural barriers and to create paths for people with physical disabilities (e.g. tactile paths, soft zones, openings at dedicated times), but not enough has been done to enable people with communication deficits to understand the content of cultural structures and encourage their active participation.

Through the strategies of Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC), everyone will be encouraged to enjoy the beauty found in museum structures, making active citizens those who today can only partially experience the cultural experience, due to linguistic, cognitive, and other barriers.

AAC allows the use of a potentially universal language and allows to translate into symbols what would normally be expressed through the written word or sound, allowing the overcoming of linguistic barriers.

For more info: aaccproject.eu