The website for Milestones Museum in Basingstoke, UK is now accessible for
people who use British Sign Language (BSL).

Following a presentation by Remark Access (www.remarkaccess.co.uk) at
Museum Computer Groups Museums and the Web day in Leicester this year, we
decided to trial the use of BSL enabled content. Creating the BSL content
was done by Remark Access, and the process was straightforward and
completed within a few weeks.

BSL content was limited to eleven main pages on the website.  The ‘what’s
on’ list was not included due to the need to have it frequently updated.
The website is fairly compact and visitor focused so BSL content did not
need to include collections information.

Clicking a BSL icon adjacent to text on the web page opens Windows Media
Player which will play a short video (.wmv) of a signer interpreting the
written content, which also includes synchronised closed captions (.smi).
File sizes can be quite large varying from 250kb to 1.5mb so can take time
to load over a slow connection.

We will be undertaking evaluation with several groups of deaf users to
assess the value of this form of content, and the viability of extending it
across other parts of Hampshire County Council’s museums and cultural
heritage websites.

The website can be seen at www.milestones-museum.com

Ian Edelman
Web Manager
Recreation and Heritage
Hampshire County Council

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