Glasgow public access kiosk project

Access Glasgow — Glasgow City Council’s project to improve access to its services and to information about public services in the city — has been placed amongst the finalists at the forthcoming 2005 Healthcare IT Effectiveness Awards.

The scheme provides access to information through the use of touchscreen kiosks that are located in public spaces. The main objective of the project is to produce a comprehensive central repository of information and services in a simple manner, in locations where it would be accessed as part of normal daily life by Glasgow’s diverse community. Particular emphasis was placed on making the service suitable for people who have no real experience of computers.

Partner organisations such as NHS Greater Glasgow, Strathclyde Transport Executive, Greater Glasgow and Clyde Valley Tourist Board and S1 Now supply a range of content. Users can learn about Council and healthcare services; what’s happening in and around the city; news, travel and tourist information; job vacancies; health information and advice and more.

Several of the areas of information, including the general health information, are available in Urdu, Punjabi, Cantonese, Arabic, Turkish and Somali. The kiosks are also fitted with high-quality A4 thermal printers in order to allow users to print and take away any of the provided information.

The kiosks feature an avatar*, called Heather, to read out information or act as a guide to users. She also provides information in British sign language about Glasgow’s Centre for Sensory Impaired People.

All kiosks are connected to a remote management provider via high-speed broadband, and each partner is responsible for hosting and maintaining their own particular areas of content.

The kiosks incorporate a feedback mechanism to allow users to send comments to Glasgow City Council about the usefulness of the information provided through the kiosks and suggestions for improvement.

The project is still in its pilot stage so evidence of its effectiveness has not yet been formulated and evaluated. Levels of use have been higher than expected, however, with an average of 28,000 pages in total being accessed from the kiosks every week.

*Avatar: a moving representation of a person created by virtual reality graphics.