Plea to Ponder: The Role of Museums for Visually Impaired People

This research project aims to understand how the concept of new museology helps to communicate with differently abled people. Though the policy of exclusion for various kind visitors is also prevalent in museum due to vision centric nature of museum and architecturally designed for people without any difficulties. One such example is the exclusion of visually impaired people from the museum. The role of the museum has significantly changed in the recent years and has been attributed to play its most important role as an educator. This being an important aspect; there have been developments also to justify it being an organization in the public sector and for the public sector. Museums need to be accessible to all and this has been worked upon in different museums across the globe to make it all inclusive and not exclusive in nature. The cultural exclusion is not only from the perspective of inaccessibility for audience but also from the perspective of the lack of meaningful representation of disability within museum’s collection. Since the development of concept of museology, the differently abled people have been historically and contemporarily excluded from cultural spaces. The National Museum has made a significant endeavour to make museum more inclusive comprising visually impaired people by making Anubhav Gallery. In this research it is observed that the Anubhav gallery is not just being a repository of materials on display but it serves an institution, which enables dialogue between the audience and the objects. Providing an interactive model for accessible gallery for all visitors or designing of a specific gallery dedicated to particular visitors are not enough but museums should also promote the facilities through various programmes among the marginalized as well as common visitors also. Hence, there is no need for individuals with different abilities to separate for museum experience. This can allow families or groups of friends to enjoy the experience together and to build their relationships with each other.Keywords- Visually Impaired, Disabled, Vision loss and Accessibility