Together with Design de Plume and Prime Access Consulting, Agnes is undertaking sector-leading exploratory research to address the accessibility of the International Interoperability of Images Framework (IIIF).

IIIF is a suite of open-access digital tools and standards and a community of practice that makes digital images and audio/visual assets interoperable across servers and Web environments. It is a useful tool for accessing images, allowing a user to deeply zoom in to view details, create annotations and compare images from collections around the world. Our project aims to remediate IIIF’s tools for accessibility, address the high Internet bandwidth requirements for access by remote communities and conduct user research to inform curatorial innovations in the digital realm.

“This project enables Agnes and other Canadian art museums to participate in an international community concerned with the interoperability of digital assets and to provide interactive image access across digital publishing initiatives and artists’ projects in culturally sensitive ways,” says Danuta Sierhuis, Agnes’s Digital Development Coordinator and project curator.

A preliminary prototype and report outlining technical recommendations and solutions for the sector will be publicly released this fall. By sharing our findings, arts organizations can use our research for their own IIIF implementations, while also informing the future of IIIF at Agnes.

Funded by the Digital Greenhouse program, Canada Council for the Arts.