ELMS 3.0
Prototype Controlled Vocabularies

In 2021, Grigar and Snyder began to envision an enhancement to the Extended eLectronic Metadata Schema (ELMS), developed for ELO's The NEXT, that would address the needs of visitors with disabilities and sensory sensitivities. We refer to this iniatiative as ELMS 3.0.

In fall 2022 our team proposed and was accepted to Triangle SCI, the week-long retreat at Duke University funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to continue our work on ELMS 3.0. Our goal was to build out the metadata needed for visitors to know the kind of experience to expect from a work so that they can make informed decisions about how best to engage with it. Based on a framework of sensory modalities like sight, sound, and touch, the system pairs extended metadata in controlled vocabularies related to disability access with a narrative “experiencing the work” statement. Our descriptive statements are expressed in Plain/Simple English and further detail what disabled and sensory sensitive visitors need to know before encountering a work. You will find the prototype for our controlled vocabularies below.

At the heart of our project is the belief that all visitors should be equally enabled to act upon their interest in accessing works held in an archive.

content timing

Describes the speed of a work's content.

text format

Describes how a work implements font families, font size, and effects.

color and contrast

Attends to partial visual disability and color blindness.

visual impact

Describes visual elements that may startle, surprise, or be hazardous for visitors.

auditory

Describes sounds produced by the work.

touch

Describes how visitors interface with the work physically by making contact with screens, buttons, dials, etc.

haptic feedback

Describes how the work registers meaningful physical feedback in a visitor's body, usually with varied methods of vibration.

repetitive motion

Describes works that require repetitive physical input from visitors.

movement & gesture

The work registers the visitor's non-touch physical movements as input.