• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.41-56
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• 2020

This study suggests multisensory interaction techniques to help visually impaired people appreciate and understand artworks through non-visual senses such as tactile, auditory, and olfactory senses. A user study was conducted on the basis of a qualitative interview about the experience of appreciating artwork through the multisensory interaction system to visually impaired people so as to verify the development of the interaction techniques. The user test shows that the multisensory interactions in artwork generally not only help them appreciate and understand it but also give them satisfaction through artwork appreciation. However, it also indicates that some multisensory interactions caused the visually impaired people confusion and could not be perceived during the appreciation. On the basis of these outcomes, implications in this study are as follows. This study has contributed to providing specific development guidelines and indicators of non-visual multisensory interactions as a technical alternative to improve accessibility to cultural and artistic activities for the visually impaired. Furthermore, this study is expected to contribute to building a technical background, which can provide comprehensive sensory experiences with not only blind people but also non-blind people such as children and the elderly through universal interaction techniques beyond existing visual-oriented fragmentary experience.