The Potential of Digital Tools and Technologies in Architectural Heritage Research for an Inclusive Approach to Built Heritage

In recent years, inclusive design (a.k.a. universal design or design for all) is one of the developed approaches which aim to consider the diverse human abilities and conditions in the design process. As defined by the European Institute for Design and Disability (EIDD) ‘design for all’ is designing for diversity, social inclusion and equality. Considering the social and demographic changes in the 21st century, which include an international movement towards social inclusion and more specifically the rights of disabled people, an inclusive approach is turning into a necessity for today’s diverse and ageing society. In the case of architectural and urban heritage, the disabled people or in better words those with diverse sensory, mental or mobility abilities who differ from the general public, have the right to experience, interact with, and engage with heritage and its values. As part of an extensive interdisciplinary research on inclusive approaches to built heritage values, which connects the fields of architecture, history, conservation, inclusive design, and digital humanities, this paper investigates the potentials of incorporating digital tools and techniques in the different aspects of this research. The extensive study involves communication between researchers, relevant professional experts, and the historic built environment with the target community of disabled people and in this paper, the digital means to facilitate these interactions have been studied. As a step towards answering the question ‘what are suitable methods and tools for facilitating and acquiring insight into diversely abled people’s engagement with and understanding of architectural heritage and its values?’, it more specifically focuses on the interaction of the disabled people with the historic architecture and urban spaces. Additionally, in a more general approach, by linking the fields of digital humanities and architectural research, the existing tools for the different stages of research ranging from data collection and storage, data analysis, and dissemination are explored. By conducting and elaborating relevant research examples, this study shows how incorporating digital tools and techniques derived from Digital Humanities - such as retrieving data through APIs, textual analysis, creating and querying databases, and data visualization - can facilitate research in the field of architecture and built heritage. Moreover, in studying the relation between disability and the historic built environment, it indicates that acquiring knowledge on the potentials in practical digital tools for disabled people’s interaction with the built heritage, can have a significant impact on the research approach and findings. As for an inclusive approach to built heritage, the disabled people can be taken into account with their prospective extended digital abilities. Hence in today’s digital world, integrating the digital tools and technologies in architectural heritage research is not only a necessary practical mean for conducting research, but can also impact the theoretical approach, allowing to carry out extensive and innovative research in an efficient manner.