Contract for James Monroe Museum Audio Project

Mission statement (describe project) 

We will be working with the James Monroe Museum to make some of their exhibits more accessible by utilizing audio embeds on websites so visitors can listen to the interpretation, rather than read it all. We will be working on the Era of Good Feelings room, the Piano Room, the Americans in Paris Room, and the Monroe biography room, (which excludes the room that discusses Monroe’s family and contains the “Young Patriot’s Corner” due to it having audio playing already) which we will split into four sections (due to there being four rooms on that side of the museum). For every room other than the Monroe biography room (which has a more narrative driven interpretive text) we will be adapting our own script for each room that will incorporate independent research and the objects on display. We will work with the museum to make these webpages/audios available to visitors through the use of QR codes that will be posted in the rooms with our audio. These codes will be posted differently within each room but we plan on putting them in visible locations by the entryway of each room.  We will also work with the James Monroe Mmuseum to advertise their new accessibility option so a broader audience will be able to learn about our project. Once we have completed the final website, we will consider it their prerogative to keep the QR codes to the audio functional. These QR codes will route to the page(s) on the site specific to the room that they are scanned in; but while we are working on the project, we will ensure that the QR codes will work functionally. 

Tools planning on using 

We are planning on using WordPress to build and house the website with the audio. Our planned domain will be “JMMAudio” followed by the umwhistory.org URL. For the generation of QR codes we will use Adobe Express as we believe in the longevity of Adobe’s existence and upkeep in comparison to alternatives. We will have a distinct webpage for each room that people can access through the site, so they don’t have to scan a different QR code every time. These pages will contain the audio files, links to pdf transcriptions of the audio, and images of the objects on displays with apt alt text and captions. We will still have unique QR codes in every room, but for the sake of quality of life each page can be accessed through the site so people are not forced to scan a multitude of QR codes when they visit. To that end, our website will have a focus on mobile UI and functionality because that will be how people are intended to interact with the website. For the website itself we will be using the theme “Go”.

For the audio recordings, we are planning to utilize the DKC Recording Booth in the basement of the HCC, or if the booth is unavailable, renting out quality microphones from the HCC front desk to record in a quiet room at our disposal. We will utilize whatever audio recording/editing software that is available to us such as Audacity or Soundtrap, as long as the product is a high-quality audio file without background noise. 

For tentative schedule/division of labor see spreadsheet. 

Other items to include somewhere 

On the website we will be using the theme “Go”, which we feel is a clean and easy to navigate theme. We will also choose appropriate font and text colors, alt text, and clear identification of audio links. We are not planning on using generative AI for this project. We will inquire with JMM about advertising our project and page at the front with a printout which has QR code which will direct visitors to the landing page which will host information about the project and also give direct access to the sub pages for each room.

Our audience for this project is for the general populationpopulous of James Monroe Museum visitors, which is to say, anyone that comes in. Accessibility helps especially with people who struggle to concentrate on/see paragraphs of text, but also more accessible materials help everyone by having multiple ways to engage with the content.