"We are very pleased with the Discovery PEN - It is an easy way to increase accessibility within the galleries."
Katey Boal - Learning Manager, Culloden Battlefield and Visitor Centre
The text on the boards is read to the user, as well as an anecdotal story about the area where the board is located.
Holywells Park in Ipswich Suffolk have just installed the Discover Bird board in their newly refurbished café. The Park has undergone a 3.5 m restoration as part of the Parks for People project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Big Lottery Fund, with additional financial support from Ipswich Borough Council and the Friends of Holywells Park. The board has been a great success with families learning about the 70 birds on the board. They love listening to the birds calls and song and the quiz is a real hit, especially the question about Harry Potters owl.
We have partnered with Bristol Museum, enabling blind visitors to find out about many historic artefacts for the first time. Objects in the Egypt exhibition at the museum have been given stickers with audio descriptions stored on PenFriends.
“For visually impaired people, they just walk round museums and it’s just one glass case after another. The PENfriend really brought it to life. We knew what we were looking at, we knew the history of the items and how old they were and what they were used for. All things that we had no idea of before.” - Jennifer Stirratt, registered blind person
We are currently developing similar projects with The National Trust.
We worked with Stover Country Park, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Local Reserve that includes the Ted Hughes Poetry Trail. The poems in the pack were recorded by the poet Alice Oswald. Next to each title and poem on the sheet are soundspots for the TalkingPEN to play back the relevant recording. See the Ted Huges poetry trail.