As the sense of touch plays an increasingly important role in engaging with art, it has been successfully utilized to improve access to museums and galleries for people with visual impairments. Tactile support can significantly help to convey the beauty of an object, influence the aesthetic experience of an artwork and make the art experience more direct, immersive and durable. In some contexts, touch can also be exploited as a habilitative tool. The effectiveness of tactile experiences, however, depends crucially on the type and quality of the directional information provided verbally to the user. This research qualitatively analyzes linguistic expressions used to refer to general and fine-grained hand movements necessary for efficient haptic exploration of artworks, focusing on hand movement verbs and on a selection of linguistic strategies used by professional Italian guides in live touch tours. Their AI(ChatGPT)-generated English translation are evaluated for adequacy and accuracy. As a co-product of this analysis, tentative bilingual recommendations are provided that can be exploited in both live and recorded museum touch tours in Italian and in English.
Translating tactile narration: hand movement descriptions for blind museum visitors in Italian and English
Perego, Elisa
2026-01-01
Abstract
As the sense of touch plays an increasingly important role in engaging with art, it has been successfully utilized to improve access to museums and galleries for people with visual impairments. Tactile support can significantly help to convey the beauty of an object, influence the aesthetic experience of an artwork and make the art experience more direct, immersive and durable. In some contexts, touch can also be exploited as a habilitative tool. The effectiveness of tactile experiences, however, depends crucially on the type and quality of the directional information provided verbally to the user. This research qualitatively analyzes linguistic expressions used to refer to general and fine-grained hand movements necessary for efficient haptic exploration of artworks, focusing on hand movement verbs and on a selection of linguistic strategies used by professional Italian guides in live touch tours. Their AI(ChatGPT)-generated English translation are evaluated for adequacy and accuracy. As a co-product of this analysis, tentative bilingual recommendations are provided that can be exploited in both live and recorded museum touch tours in Italian and in English.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
