AI and Accessibility: Four Ways Cultural Offerings Are Becoming More Accessible for People with Visual or Hearing Impairments

Efteling uses technology to help visitors with hearing impairments better follow the experience: visual support at attractions, apps with additional explanations, and clear information in advance. Read more about this project. (opens in new tab) 

The same principle works for museums, theaters, and festivals. AI automatically converts audio into text, provides extra context on the phone, or enhances visual signals. This way, everyone gains access to the story behind the performance or collection. 

How to start yourself: 

• Involve experienced individuals in designing your audience journey. 

• Start small with automatic captioning for videos and installations. 

• Test whether important information can also be followed without sound. 

Het Nationale Theater uses LiveText glasses: smart glasses that allow visitors to read along live during a performance. The captions appear above, below, or in the middle of the field of vision, depending on the user's preference. This way, visitors with hearing impairments can follow the performance without constantly looking at a separate screen. 

This example shows how technology adapts to the audience without disrupting the artistic process. 

How to start yourself: 

• Investigate whether live captioning is feasible for your programming. 

• Collaborate with technology partners or other institutions to share costs. 

• Actively communicate about accessible offerings, including online. Use the standardized toolkit from Stichting Accessibility (opens in new tab). 

Want to start using smart glasses for your organization? Apply for the 'Implementation Contribution' subsidy at DigitAll (opens in new tab). 

Be My Eyes connects people with visual impairments to volunteers via an app. Using AI and image recognition, the app also independently describes objects, texts, and situations. Users can even ask follow-up questions to the AI agent if they want more information, rather than just receiving a description. 

For the cultural sector, this presents an opportunity to make collections and spaces readable and queryable. AI can describe artworks, explain routes, and answer practical questions—not as a replacement for human interaction, but as an extra layer that gives visitors more independence. 

How to start yourself: 

• Experiment with AI descriptions of objects or spaces. 

• Ensure visitors can ask questions to the digital guide. 

• Make digital information also available in audio format. 

• Determine when a digital guide truly helps, such as with navigation, collection information, or practical questions. 

Audio description helps people with visual impairments fully follow theater, film, and installation art. It is a spoken description of what is happening, such as: an actor walks forward, picks up a knife from the table, and looks angrily at the audience. This information is heard as an audio layer, usually during quiet moments between dialogue or music. 

Until now, this was mostly done manually by specially trained audio describers. Technology is increasingly helping here. The Earcatch app plays pre-recorded audio descriptions during performances, allowing visitors to choose when to activate them. AI can speed up the process by generating initial versions of descriptions, which your team can then refine. This saves time without compromising quality. 

How to start yourself: 

• Investigate whether audio description is feasible for your programming, even in short form. 

• Experiment with AI-generated initial versions that your team adjusts. 

• Provide audio description via an app or separate channel, allowing visitors to activate it at their discretion. 

• Collaborate with audio describers to ensure quality. 

• Actively communicate about audio description in your marketing. Many visitors are still unaware of this option. 

Yes. Since June 2025, websites and apps of cultural organizations must comply with the European Accessibility Act. If you meet these requirements, your website will be WCAG compliant.

No. AI can generate an initial version of a description, but an audio describer is still needed to ensure quality and select the right details.

Only people with the relevant impairment can assess this. Assemble a test group of experienced individuals and let them try the application in practice before scaling up.

Captioning converts spoken text into written text, for example, live during a performance, and primarily helps people with hearing impairments. Audio description is a spoken description of what is visible and primarily helps people with visual impairments.

Assemble a fixed test group of experienced individuals and let them try the application in practice, not only at the start but also after adjustments. Additionally, set up a feedback channel so other visitors can report issues.