Public Funding for Postal Heritage Trust

"Since its inception in the sixteenth century the Post Office has pioneered enormous industrial and social advances. Its archive, the Royal Mail Archive, is on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register. The Postal Museum provides the widest possible access to the Royal Mail Archive, Museum Collection and Mail Rail, the Post Office underground railway. The Postal Museum's standout attraction is the Mail Rail Ride. Between 1927 and 2003, narrow gauge, driverless, trains transferred mail between sorting offices in London, a function which was integral to the postal service throughout the 20th century. These trains were not built to carry people; the Postal Museum has built trains take visitors into the rail tunnels and into a projected light animated theatrical experience of its history. However, this experience is not fully accessible to many visitors with physical disabilities or claustrophobia, sensory disabilities or epilepsy. Visitors must be able to walk unaided for a minimum of 100 metres on uneven surfaces with minimal lighting, and up at least 70 steps. There is an audio-visual show for such visitors, but it does not offer an equitable experience to riding Mail Rail. Equal access for people with disabilities is a core priority for the museum, and virtual reality is an excellent tool for accessibility in relation to a large range of disabilities. We want to create an accessible Mail Rail experience which is of equal value to the ride itself. We will adopt a human-centred methodology to produce a design brief for an accessible and immersive virtual reality experience of Mail Rail, which specifically accommodates and responds to visitors' disabilities and is adjustable by its users. The Postal Museum refuses to be satisfied with its current offer to people with disabilities. The Postal Museum and ScanLAB Projects Ltd will explore the needs and accessibility requirements of people with disabilities; produce a design brief; explore ideas and develop prototypes at speed; test the prototypes with people with disabilities; and deliver a specific brief for the research and development of the design for an accessible immersive virtual reality experience of Mail Rail. The project will result in a new approach and method to immersive virtual reality experiences in the cultural sector which is specifically for people with disabilities. There are currently very few projects developing these for the cultural sector: this work will, in turn, influence the creation of immersive virtual reality experiences more generally."