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ReDiscover

Accessible information for the Eden Project

The Sensory Trust completed an exciting project with the Eden Project, largely based on accessible information.

Eden was awarded a grant from the ReDiscover fund, a joint venture between the Millennium Commission, Wellcome Foundation and Wolfson Trust. The grant was to develop new exhibits, breathe new life into old exhibits and create exciting information resources that would allow people to get as much information as possible. It was a tall order and Eden worked with many people to make it possible, artists, scientists, teachers, designers, everyone pooling their expertise to create something for everyone, to begin to communicate some of the issues we face today.

The project looked at complicated subjects like GM crops and Intellectual property rights; these are communicated through a multimedia theatre involving puppets and CGI (Computer Generated Imagery). The ideas of climate change, water use and biodiversity are questioned in exhibits in the Core. An arcade of ideas lets your mind wander while you play on exhibits discovering what it is like to be a plant and survive, how do you eat and drink when you rooted to the ground? Or where does your breakfast come from? And how many food miles would it take to make Elvis’ favourite pizza?

The exhibits and theatre certainly give you a lot to think about and a good source of information are the diversity packs Sensory Trust developed as part of this project. We wanted to create a resource that would encompass all the aspects of the exhibits, providing enough of an understanding for visitors to enable them to know more about the issues, and curious to go out and find out more, especially how their decisions impact on these very issues. It was therefore very important to make the information available to the widest possible audience.

We started by looking at what was on offer both at Eden and other places. We quickly realised that we had an exciting opportunity to develop a resource that could be used as an exemplar project, and set a precedent for all of Eden’s future information. When Eden set out on the ReDiscover project it was determined to ensure that the project brings science issues, ideas and ethics alive using humour, charm and honesty to engage all ages, abilities and a wide range of interest groups. The project is about science and its relevance to people’s everyday lives. It was important none of that was lost in the information and translations.

Rediscover English cover

Rediscover French cover

Rediscover German cover

Through consultation and experience we decided to create the information in eight versions; Standard, Easy English, Braille, Large Print with image descriptions, Widgit, French, German and Japanese. The Braille was developed in collaboration with the RNIB. We also worked with Cate Detheridge from Widgit (a pictorial language for people with learning disabilities). Cate translated the packs into Widgit in both a full symbol version and a symbol supported set and even developed some activity packs to accompany the packs. If you would like to know more about Widgits please follow the link below to the Widgit website.

The Diversity packs were designed to be both hard copies for the Eden site and down loads from the Web. We have worked with a wide range of people to create the packs and are very pleased with the results. The Packs can be found in the café in the Core or at the Eden Access desk in the Visitor Centre. They can be downloaded from the Sensory Trust's Discover Eden page.

We have developed an attractive and informative resource that carries the humour, charm and honesty that Eden is so well known for, and demonstrates what inclusive design can be - a creative design approach providing access to the widest possible audience.