December 13, 2010 
Typhlological Museum in Zagreb is one of the few special museums in Europe that deals with the issue of people with disabilities, particularly people with impaired vision… Since the establishment in 1953, people with disabilities are provided, through all museum programs, equal participation in all aspects of community life, including the realization of the experience of museum visit. Those visitors who want to experience more have the opportunity to find out how people with disabilities experience environment that surrounds them and how they overcome everyday difficulties.
Professionals from various fields – education teachers, museologists, art historians etc., are in charge for the professional analysis and presentation of materials in the possession of the museum and for your pleasant stay.
The contents of the museum are accommodated to all categories of visitors – disabled people, blind and visually impaired, deaf persons.
In the Dark room, you will experience for a moment, through simulation, how it feels being blind. Here you can – without the help of another person and without further instructions, or if you want, with the help of a guide and instructions – move in total darkness and cope with simple tasks. The whole area is under video surveillance and your movements are recorded through the darkness, which you can later take home with you on a CD as a witness to a special experience. After leaving the Dark room, there is a computer where you can learn more about the eyesight, anatomy and physiology of the eye, eye damage and eye damage types, causes, education and rehabilitation, the white cane, guide dog, etc.
A special exhibiting section will present you how the blind were taken care of in the 19th century. There are also documentary archive materials chronologically presented, which show the great effort in studying the “breeding and training of the blind.” Special highlight is put on Vinko Bek, Croatian teacher of the blind whose goal of professional and humanitarian work was foundation of the National Institute for the Education of Blind Children. There is also his Working Certificate, which confirms his expertise for the training of the blind, and Notice of appointment of the Manager of the National Institute. With the help of photographs, film, art, and the relief plan visitors can closely experience the life and work of the National Institute for Blind Children in Zagreb at the end of the 19 century.
In a separate section of the museum you can see the development of the script for the blind that provided them with the access to information and knowledge. Here you can see the knotty letter from the culture of old Inca – quipos that was also used by the blind, relief line letter, relief needle letter, and the Moon’s letter that was very popular from the mid-20th century. What is the difference between them and why they were pushed out by the Braille alphabet, you’ll learn by sightseeing this part of the exhibition. If you want, at a workshop “How to Write Braille” you can learn to write in this letter.
Another exhibition is dedicated to the information technology that supports the image contents and adapts them to the needs of visually impaired persons. Here you will learn how blind people read from computer, how the keyboard that helps visually impaired persons look like and function, and what is on the computer screen of a person that does not see.
The art of blind authors is exhibited in the section “Touch the sculptures of blind authors”. More than a dozen of sculptures in this part of the museum will help you learn what inspires and guides the visually impaired people to speak about their life and aesthetic experience through wood and clay. This exhibition will be a whole change for some unfounded prejudices about visual capabilities of blind people.
Typhological Museum is located in the centre of the city, in Draškovićeva Street on the number 80, on the second floor.
The museum is open weekdays from 10 to 17, and Thursday from 10 to 20 hours.
Learn more about the museum on their page: www.tifloloskimuzej.hr