L.F. Leon shares the story behind the story on how Saratoga Springs History Museum is bridging the gap for blind and low vision guests. Their new AI program not only adds words to the visual experience, but guests can leap through time and converse with AI powered characters.

How Saratoga Springs History Museum Employed AI for Inclusion

By L.F. Leon

The journey towards inclusion had a clear starting point, but it’s also been a natural progression.

When I joined the museum in 2024, I started thinking about how we could make our exhibits more accessible. Not every visitor engages with traditional display text in the same way. For some, it’s due to visual impairments or other disabilities; for others, it may be attention span, language barriers, or simply personal preference.

Additionally, our museum has two floors that are not wheelchair accessible. That made it especially important to find a way for visitors who couldn’t physically access those spaces to still experience the stories they hold.

That’s really where the idea came from, how do we make the full museum experience available to everyone, regardless of how they move through the space?

The answer was an AI-narrated audio tour. We also enhanced it with ambient sound design for each exhibit, so visitors aren’t just hearing the history, they’re stepping into it. The combination of narration and atmosphere helps create a much more immersive and inclusive experience.

Why AI for Accessibility?

The decision to use AI was largely practical. As a small non-profit museum, we simply don’t have the budget to hire voice actors, book studio time, and manage post-production.

AI allowed us to overcome those barriers entirely. It gave us the ability to produce high-quality narration quickly, affordably, and at scale.

More importantly, it gave us flexibility. We can update content easily, expand the tour over time, and adapt to visitor needs without having to redo an entire production process. For a museum like ours, that kind of agility is invaluable.

What’s the Real-Life Impact of AI for Accessibility?

Visitors who are blind or have low vision have told us how much they appreciate being able to fully engage with the exhibits through audio.

It’s also been impactful for visitors who aren’t able to access all areas of the museum physically. The audio tour allows them to experience exhibits on upper floors they may not be able to reach.

One of the most rewarding things we’ve heard is that the narration, combined with the ambient sound, helps bring the exhibits to life in a way that feels immersive and engaging. It reinforces the idea that accessibility isn’t just about access, it’s about quality of experience as well.

How You Can Revolutionize Museum Accessibility and Engagement in Your Destination

Our experience led us to build a platform specifically for this purpose, called MuseumAI.

MuseumAI allows museums to create AI-narrated audio guides, but it goes a step further. It also enables interactive experiences with historical figures, where visitors can speak directly to AI-powered characters in real time, either through kiosks or their own smartphones.

These AI figures are designed with distinct voices, personalities, and historically grounded knowledge, allowing visitors to ask questions and engage in a more natural, conversational way.

For those who prefer not to speak, there’s also a chat-based experience available on mobile devices, supporting 10 languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic.

For institutions interested in exploring it further, we’re currently preparing for a broader launch and inviting early adopters to join the waitlist at museumai.co.

The platform is now being expanded so other museums and cultural institutions can benefit from it as well.

We’ve already implemented MuseumAI at the Saratoga Springs History Museum, and the response has been incredibly positive, not just for its innovation, but for how it improves accessibility and engagement across a wide range of visitors. You can learn more about that here: https://museumai.co/case-studies/saratoga-springs-history-museum

For institutions interested in exploring it further, we’re currently preparing for a broader launch and inviting early adopters to join the waitlist at museumai.co.

At its core, the goal is simple: to help museums share their stories in a more inclusive, interactive, and future-facing way.