Thanks to designingsound.org for highlighting this group.

Health-Seeker is a map that privileges the ear over the eye. It is at once a historical record and a subjective representation of what is going on in the country. It is what each user wishes it to be and it is ever growing, ever changing and totally interactive.

The purpose of this map is to explore and create an ongoing dialog regarding your experience specific to the arts and health. We welcome your input into this map and details on how you can record your own soundbite can be found on the recording page.

What kinds of projects are happening in arts and health across the UK?

With Health-Seeker, you can zoom, pan and search for people talking about their projects with interactive satellite photos or detailed maps of their area. Click on hot spots to listen to the recorded sounds of a location based on gps tracking.

Do zoom into the map, as you will find many projects overlap in our cities. You will only see one or two projects in the default view of seeing the whole of the UK. While zooming in will open up many more projects.

While acknowledging that the visual sense often dominates, and conscious of the fact that the internet is largely a visual interface, we strive to create spaces that engage ALL the senses, and the mind, in a truly interactive way.

The principles are:

• Where data or collections of data are published it is critical that they be published with a clear and explicit statement of the wishes and expectations of the publishers with respect to re-use and re-purposing of individual data elements, the whole data collection, and subsets of the collection. This statement should be precise, irrevocable, and based on an appropriate and recognized legal statement in the form of a waiver or license. When publishing data make an explicit and robust statement of your wishes.
• Many widely recognized licenses are not intended for, and are not appropriate for, data or collections of data. A variety of waivers and licenses that are designed for and appropriate for the treatment of data are described here. Creative Commons licenses (apart from CCZero), GFDL, GPL, BSD, etc are NOT appropriate for data and their use is STRONGLY discouraged. Use a recognized waiver or license that is appropriate for data.
• The use of licenses which limit commercial re-use or limit the production of derivative works by excluding use for particular purposes or by specific persons or organizations is STRONGLY discouraged. These licenses make it impossible to effectively integrate and re-purpose datasets and prevent commercial activities that could be used to support data preservation. If you want your data to be effectively used and added to by others it should be open as defined by the Open Knowledge/Data Definition – in particular non-commercial and other restrictive clauses should not be used.
• Furthermore, in science it is STRONGLY recommended that data, especially where publicly funded, be explicitly placed in the public domain via the use of the Public Domain Dedication and Licence or Creative Commons Zero Waiver. This is in keeping with the public funding of much scientific research and the general ethos of sharing and re-use within the scientific community.

At the Victoria and Albert Museum’s prestigious Sackler Centre, Martha Lane Fox, the government’s Champion for Digital Inclusion, presented to Sally Booth the Jodi Awards For Excellence In Accessible Cultural Websites And Digital Media.

The Judges said: “Artist Sally Booth’s commitment to accessibility is exceptional. The website is easy to use, well colour contrasted, experiments with two types of verbal descriptions of her artwork and provides British Sign Language. The choice of colours, tone of language and font combine to give this site a warm feel – a rare quality in the world-wide-web. Her website was seen as a master class in minute attention to accessibility.”

Kevin Carey, Chairman of RNIB said: “It has been said since the beginning of the web that accessibility kills creativity in web design; I’m not surprised that it has taken a visually impaired person to discredit this proposition. In her work, Sally Booth demonstrates creative adventure with comprehensive accessibility.”

Sally said: “This was a creative and successful working collaboration with a company that truly engaged with my needs. They have developed a website that really used media as a vital catalyst, but have included solutions for the collection of disabled people who use the web. Not only that but they have built a site that is simple and easy to use and can inspire other artists and arts organisations.

Joe Stevens said: “I think it’s critically important for a small company such as ours to get this recognition. We feel if a small company such as ours can offer this service, which has an inbuilt commitment to accessible media and resources, it should be standard practice for larger companies.”

“The Jodi Awards celebrate practice that inspires locally, nationally or internationally,” said Matthew Cock, Chair of the Jodi Mattes Trust and Head of Web at the British Museum. “We welcome nominations from all kinds of projects, small and big, low-tech and hi-tech and for small and large audiences. What counts is the value of your project and the quality of your engagement with disabled people.”