Pladia Empower – Enhancing Access and Engagement for Museums and Attractions

When visitors first arrive at a visitor attraction, they often face a moment of uncertainty—unsure where to begin, how to orient themselves, or whether the experience will meet their needs. For visitors with access needs, this can create exclusion or anxiety from the outset. Pladia Empower was created to meet this challenge. Through research into visitor behaviour, wayfinding and inclusive design, we identified a need for tools that offer flexibility—supporting guided exploration or spontaneous discovery, depending on the visitor’s preference. By addressing accessibility at this critical moment, Empower helps institutions create more welcoming, inclusive environments from the very first step.

Pladia Empower is delivered as a Progressive Web App, offering an app-like experience in the browser—no downloads, logins, or proprietary hardware required. Visitors access content instantly on their own devices, making the experience familiar and accessible through system-level features like language preferences and screen readers. A key design challenge was indoor wayfinding. Rather than relying on Bluetooth beacons or complex positioning systems—which are costly to maintain—we created a spatial content model that supports both navigation and interpretation. This reduces setup for institutions while allowing visitors to explore confidently, whether following thematic paths or navigating independently.

Pladia Empower is a game-changer for inclusive interpretation—improving accessibility, confidence, and engagement across the visitor journey. Working alongside traditional signage, it delivers instant, multi-lingual content to personal devices, supporting diverse needs through screen reader compatibility and accessible design. Empower’s subscription-based, high-impact model makes world-class interpretation achievable for small institutions and scalable for global audiences. It reduces maintenance overhead, accelerates content updates, and unlocks new opportunities for donations and sponsorship. A living, adaptive layer of interpretation, Empower helps institutions connect more deeply with visitors—expanding reach, relevance, and impact across every audience.

Pladia Empower provides cultural institutions with a comprehensive set of tools to deliver accessible, engaging, and dynamic visitor experiences—indoors and out. Step-by-step navigation helps visitors move confidently through complex spaces, using intuitive, map-based directions and spatial cues—no Bluetooth or proprietary hardware required. Visitors can switch between suggested pathways or navigate independently, with content adapting to their location, language preferences, or access needs. The platform supports screen readers, Auslan and multilingual video, transcripts, and adjustable text—enabling a wide range of access modes on personal devices. Audio Access+ allows visitors to trigger audio by simply raising their phone to their ear, eliminating the need for headphones and supporting inclusive, intuitive use. Institutions manage content through a spatial model that reflects their physical layout, allowing teams to create and update object labels, tours, and multimedia without developer input. Built-in support for sponsorship, donations, and memberships means commercial messaging can be surfaced contextually—without disrupting the visitor experience. Empower also offers analytics to help institutions understand engagement patterns and improve experiences over time, ensuring the platform continues to evolve alongside visitor needs.