Creating the Dot Experience: Prototyping with Scott Spaulding

The Dot Experience is a unique, fully inclusive museum experience. Images, sounds, artifacts, and exhibits have each been carefully constructed to ensure every person, of every ability, can enjoy and take part in what The Dot Experience has to offer. Visitors of The Dot Experience will be invited to touch everything within the exhibit. Tactile representations of artifacts, maps, and pieces of the museum are not only available to explore tactilely but were specifically created to be interactive.  

Behind every decision in creating these interactive exhibits, is a team of people with differing abilities, all dedicated to reviewing prototypes for each piece of The Dot Experience. From floor material and tactile replicas to audio volume levels, this team has spent the last few years ensuring accessibility remains the standard.  

Scott Spaulding, a member of this prototyping team, has spent the last two years visiting Solid Light watching the pieces of The Dot Experience develop. Spaulding, along with the team, would be brought in each time Solid Light was at a new stage of decision making. Whether that was deciding what materials would be used for specific tactile replicas or reviewing completed tactile objects, Spaulding and the team were a part of that conversation. Sometimes, Solid Light would have created replicas of booth or room layouts to navigate, whereas other times, Spaulding and the team would be asked to sit at a table and review individual objects. “Every time we were there, it was something different,” said Spaulding.  

Spaulding was connected to the project through a friend that recommended him for the team, but as a Louisville native, he was familiar with APH’s work. Having heard about APH’s plans to create a fully inclusive museum, he was ready to jump in when he heard about the need for prototypers. “I am very excited to be a part of this project,” said Spaulding.  

The prototyping team was developed to include members who are blind or low vision, who are wheelchair users, members who use hearing aids, and others who all represent a wide variety of unique needs when visiting a museum. With a large spectrum of abilities, Spaulding noted he often heard feedback from his teammates that introduced a perspective he wouldn’t have thought of on his own. “I remember there was signage up on a wall, and someone recommended they change the angle to make it easier to read tactilely. “I wouldn’t have thought of that,” said Spaulding. The combined efforts of many people, like Scott Spaulding, who gave their time, energy, and dedication to the creation of The Dot Experience are the reason accessibility has remained at the forefront of the design every step of the way. “I think this is a great project, and it will be great to see it unveiled,” said Spaulding.  

To learn more about The Dot Experience, follow us on Facebook, or our new Instagram page @the.dot.experience. If you are interested in learning more about the building of The Dot Experience, our prototyping team, and our work with Solid Light, please check out a few of our blogs listed below.  

• It’s in the Details: Constructing Accessible Exhibits in The Dot Experience 
• Solid Light Sets the Stage for Inclusivity 
• Defining The Dot Experience: Everything You Need to Know