About the Typhlological Museum

Word of the Directress

In the last five years, the Typhlological Museum has created prerequisites for its affirmation, in accordance with the new museum tendencies, and with the intention to be to the benefit of the disabled people.

By defining our mission statement we have contributed in creating the concept of the museum and opening the permanent exhibition for which the Museum has received positive evaluations by different experts. Our efforts and the need to modernize the Museum were recognized and a financial support by the Ministry of Culture followed. A new permanent exhibition is being organized by joint efforts of all qualified personnel of the Museum as well as by selfless hard work of other employees. As the finalization of the adaptation and reconstruction of the Museum is in process, we have started working on the new exhibition for the public, the opening of which is scheduled for the end of 2007 – the European Year of Equal Opportunities for All.

The areas we are planning to specially develop in the future are: communication with the public, development of an evaluation system for the programmes and services provided by the museum, high-quality promotion activities, continuous education of our employees, establishment of a network of associates, thus ensuring a strong relation between the institution and its users as well as raising awareness about people with special needs and their importance for carrying out our programmes.

The Typhlological Museum is one of the rare special museums in Europe dealing with the problems of disabled persons, especially of the visually impaired. One of the ways out into the world is definitely this website, compatible with the new visual identity of the Museum. We plan to further perfect and enrich the webpage by creating a virtual museum, alongside the existing traditional one.

We hope you will be able to find all the information you need on our website. We also hope you will visit the Museum and support our message of humanity, good intentions and appreciation of differences.

Where are we?

The Typhlological Museum is located in the centre of Zagreb, in 80 Draškovićeva Street, on the second floor.

If you are coming by tram no. 2, 4, 6, 9 or 13 (from Branimirova Street) from the direction west (Railway station), get off on the first stop (Branimirova Street) and turn left into Draškovićeva Street. You will find tactile strips on the pavement that will take you from the tram stop to the Museum (at number 80).

If you are coming by tram no. 4, 8, 9 or 13 from the direction north (Draškovićeva Street), get off on the tram stop Hotel Sheraton and continue walking down Draškovićeva Street until you reach the Museum building. You will find tactile strips on the pavement that will take you from the tram stop to the Museum (at number 80).

If you are coming by tram no. 2, 6 or 8 (Branimirova Street) from the direction east (Bus station), get off on the tram stop Branimir centre. You will find tactile strips on the pavement that will take you from the tram stop to the Museum (at number 80).

If you are coming by car, there are parking places around the Museum building. It is the second parking zone (8 HRK/hour) with marked places for the disabled people.

Accessibility

The most important idea while creating the webpages was to make them accessible to all visitors. The pages therefore provide a wide spectrum of possibilities, depending on one's personal preferences. All texts are written in a large font, and the size of the letters can be adjusted to your own desires. You can also chose between six different page backgrounds. The entire webpage content is available in audio form, also.

Equal attention was paid to the accessibility of our permanent exhibition. The museum exhibition is completely accessible to the disabled. From the museum entrance to the information desk and further through the exhibition, floor tactile stripes lead you, thus facilitating the movement to the visually impaired. A relief tactile map is on the information desk and it will help you to get acquainted with the space, its organization and the content. Introductory labels for each unit of the exhibition as well as labels explaining individual objects are printed in a large font for the partially sighted and in Braille for the blind visitors and are placed in a way to be easily read by fingers. The exhibited photographs are enlarged, whereas the objects available for touching are replicas of the originals. Documentary feature film “One day in the National Institute for the Education of the Blind Children” and three documentaries about blind sculptors Remzija Gjumišić, Sanja Fališevac and Ivan Ferlan are subtitled in order for the visitors with hearing impairments to be able to enjoy them. All the exhibited objects are in the height available to the visitors in wheel chair.
The permanent exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue in large black print, a guide through the exhibition in large print and in Braille as well as an audio guide through the exhibition. All those wanting to know more not only about the museum, but also about the visual impairment, can find all the information they want in the computers with the contents adjusted for the partially sighted. The museum also possesses Braille display with a speech unit where all the information about the museum can be found.

Unfortunately, although it had been planed, we have not yet been able to make accessible the entrance and the elevator of the museum building. It is a job that still awaits us.

What do we want to achieve?

Aware of the times we are living in and the importance of a quality presence on the internet, we have made a step forward into the virtual reality that today is one of the inevitable and the most interesting forms of communication. Web pages of the Typhlological Museum are first of all promotional pages that provide basic information about our museum, but they also have educational content that is intended to encourage people to visit our website again and to inspire a desire to visit the actual museum.

The projection of the actual museum on the Internet is intended to connect the visitor, the object/museum and the information, to entwine an interrelational, interdisciplinary and multimedial presentation of the museological information. The content and the way of presentation on the website are in accordance with the Mission Statement of the Typhological Museum and derived from it.

Our presence in the virtual reality has allowed for the disabled people, especially people with visual impairments, to be granted different possibilities in using our content. Adjustment and accessibility of our web pages is one of many activities we are undertaking so as to improve the quality of life of the disabled people.

Aware of the fact that web pages are at present only a means of promotion, our goal in the future is to make a true virtual museum in which the impossible becomes possible, in the sense of forming and creating new exhibitions and similar.