Museum experience for blind and visually impaired people at the City Museum

Am Steckmodell im Stadtmuseum können blinde Museumsbesucher die Bauphasen der Porta Nigra begreifen. © Stadtmuseum Simeonstift Trier

Making museums tangible: students from the Communication Design Department of the Design Campus under the supervision of Prof. Christopher Ledwig have developed a cross-media kit for visually impaired museum visitors together with the Stadtmuseum Simeonstift Trier.

Exhibits under bulletproof glass, light barriers in front of paintings, video installations and "Please do not touch" signs - for visually impaired people, visiting a museum is not easy, if not impossible. The City Museum and design students from the Department of Design at Trier University of Applied Sciences have developed a cross-media kit that enables people with visual impairments to visit the museum independently. For the cooperative approach and the unique exemplary offer, the Stifterverband already awarded the "University Pearl of the Month" to the "Blind Kit" project in 2017.

"A beautiful project with great practical relevance and social components. Those involved from the different institutions - the university and the city museum - were able to contribute their respective strengths and thus contribute to greater accessibility," said the Stifterverband jury, explaining its decision.

The Blind Kit is a custom-made trolley with cross-media materials such as tactile reliefs, audio files and models. Students worked on the development and implementation in consultation with blind advisors. They developed a special blind kit for each exhibition room of the City Museum. The project was realised with the support of the Kulturstiftung Rheinland-Pfalz, the Nikolaus Koch Foundation and the European Investment Bank.

Saturday, 12 March, 2 p.m. / Free admission
Guided tour for blind and visually impaired visitors with Dorothee Serwe
City history to hear and feel - Dorothee Serwe makes the Stadtmuseum Simeonstift comprehensible for blind and visually impaired visitors with tactile images, models, true-to-the-original replicas and audio collages. The Trier tour guide has specialised in offers for visually impaired people interested in culture for many years. During her guided tours of the city museum, she also uses the "Blind Kit", which was designed by students of the Design Department of Trier University of Applied Sciences in cooperation with the Simeonstift. Sighted visitors also get to know the museum pieces in a new way.