MUSA
MUSA (short for “Museums for All”) is a mobile-first platform built for and with the Deaf community, featuring Irish Sign Language (ISL) videos, interactive 3D artifacts, and playful learning tools to make art and culture accessible and engaging.
The platform allows users to scan QR codes at specific objects and artifacts around the museum, and access ISL tour videos and other content specifically tailored to Deaf visitors, allowing museum visitors who may not have otherwise been able to access a live guided tour to experience the same informational and story-based content.
The Idea
MUSA began as a student project by five MSc students at Trinity College Dublin, all of whom share a love of art and a passion for accessible design. The concept was motivated by a desire to tackle the significant barriers that Ireland’s deaf community faces while accessing museums and other cultural sites. Although ISL is the country’s third official language, many institutions still lack ISL content or tours. While some larger Dublin institutions offer occasional ISL interpretation, these tours are too infrequent to provide equitable access for many Deaf and hard-of-hearing visitors. To address these geographic and resource inequalities, we aimed to develop a scalable solution: ISL video tours for Irish museums.
“This is huge for us in Limerick. Usually, all the ISL tours and accessibility events happen in Dublin. We finally have something here for our community.”
– Deaf community member at the MUSA pre-launch event
MUSA x The Hunt
In order to turn our vision into a reality, we needed to find a strong partner museum. We reached out to several museums and institutions, but it was clear that The Hunt Museum was a perfect fit due to its existing dedication to accessibility, working with Inclusive Museums Ireland. This relationship allowed us to pilot our solution and see if it could truly meet the needs of the Deaf community. Working with CEO, Teresa Crowley, and Curator of Education and Outreach, Maria Cagney, we outlined the project parameters and identified potential “hero objects” that would form the core of the first ISL tour.
Research & Co-creation: “Nothing About Us Without Us”
We knew that to actually serve the Deaf community, our solution had to be co-created with our users. This meant building meaningful relationships, conducting focus groups, and sending surveys, instead of relying solely on secondary sources or assumptions. This became the heart of our research and planning phase. With assistance from Deaf Village Ireland, the Irish Deaf Society, the Trinity College Deaf Studies Department, and other regional Deaf associations, we connected with Deaf community members passionate about art, culture, and history who were eager to participate in developing accessible solutions. From early conceptualization all the way through our user testing and launch, Deaf community members were an integral part of the project.
In our focus groups, we explored lived experiences, recruiting participants from the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (HOH) community to discuss the barriers they face when visiting museums and their preferences for accessible digital content. This provided us with key insights on preferred video length, caption usage, and the need for culturally authentic ISL interpretation.
“I don’t really visit museums often because they never have interpreters. Most Deaf people just want access. If the barrier were removed, we would go.”
– Focus Group Participant
The feedback we received uncovered an urgent need for a shift in accessibility standards. Several participants reported that interpreters were usually unavailable or that ISL support was lacking entirely. A mobile website was seen not only as a helpful supplement but, in many cases, as a potential alternative to in-person interpreting, particularly if the app featured animated, expressive human presenters and offered flexibility in how and when information could be accessed.
These focus-group findings were further reinforced by feedback from our surveys and interviews with Deaf community leaders and educators, who highlighted the need for ISL recognition and the persistent accessibility barriers they face.
Design & Testing
After completing our research, we identified three core features essential to the site’s success: ISL interpretation videos to ensure sign language remains the primary language of the tour; interactive quiz and puzzle games to make the museum experience more engaging and social; and 3D artifact models to support visual learning. An important step was working with a certified Deaf ISL interpreter. Deaf interpreters bring native fluency, cultural knowledge, and community trust, resulting in translations that are not only accurate but also culturally appropriate and respectful.
Once the features were designed and implemented, we tested the site’s functionality and collected user feedback. Participants completed tasks like navigating between pages to help us evaluate usability. This process was critical for uncovering potential issues before the site’s final development and launch.
Launch
The community launch event for MUSA at The Hunt Museum in Limerick on August 21, 2025, was a profound success that validated our co-creation process. The turnout was strong, bringing together Deaf community members, museum staff, and accessibility advocates. Attendees were especially appreciative that the event was hosted in Limerick, noting that accessibility events and ISL tours typically concentrate in Dublin, leaving them with limited access to cultural resources. This demonstrated that MUSA was a significant step toward geographic equity. Furthermore, community members praised the quality and authenticity of the ISL content, specifically noting the involvement of the professional and respected Deaf ISL Interpreter, Lianne Quigley.
This celebration not only validated MUSA’s technical functionality but also immediately inspired questions about future expansion, with attendees eagerly asking, “Which museums will you add next?” The day successfully marked MUSA’s transition from an academic project to a valued community resource.
What’s Next
What started as a class project quickly spiraled into something much bigger. The overwhelmingly positive reception and clear demand from the community have solidified our commitment to expanding MUSA. Our first major goal is to transform the current mobile-first website into a native mobile app format, which will allow for a smoother, more integrated user experience. Concurrently, we are focused on expansion: we plan to initiate partnership discussions with additional institutions to spread our ISL tours across Ireland, aiming to replicate the MUSA model for museums of different sizes and collections. We are also exploring opportunities to scale this reproducible model to American museums. As we move into this next phase of growth and development, we are working with a dedicated mentor from Trinity’s Women That Wow programme, who is supporting us as we seek funding and develop MUSA as a sustainable resource.
Special thanks to The Hunt Museum, Lianne Quigley, members of Ireland’s Deaf community, the Irish Deaf Society, and all partners who made this project possible.