The above quote comes from a conversation during a tour for people with visual impairments in a museum in Brussels (Belgium). Our group was, at that specific time, sitting in a separate room where the persons with visual impairments were allowed to haptically experience an ancient vase. Very much appreciated by the group.
A dip in the museum's history shows that for thirty years already the museum staff provides for activities that specifically target the group of people with visual impairments. Today the policy of this so called
Museum for Blind People (my own translation) is changed from organizing activities in separate rooms to the organization of customized tours for people with visual impairments within the regular museum circuit (see
http://www.kmkg-mrah.be/nl/blinden-en-slechtzienden-0, consulted October 8, 2017).
Great, you might think, especially if you consider the following quote of a woman with a severe visual impairment who often went to the
Museum for blind people: "In itself, I don't like the idea: 'We are going to that room alone.' You could sit there, and touch things. But you didn't have the feeling of going to an exhibition."
(excerpt from group conversation, Leuven, 2014, my translation).
For this person, being able to touch an object of art in a separate museum room did not evoke the feeling of experiencing art in a museum sphere. Though she recognized some advantages of fully separate art activity, she did express a domain and relating to the museum's public exhibitions. In other words, she wanted to have the feeling of being a museum visitor, as all other (seeing) people coming to the museum for an exhibition.
