Time to See: Introducing Blind Children to the Art World

The Charity fund “Dara” and the East Kazakhstan Regional Museum of Fine Arts named after the Nevzorov family implemented the project “Open the World: creation of accessible environment in museums of Kazakhstan” for blind children, the correspondent Art of Her reports.

Audio descriptor is one of key tools to revealing detailed information to the blind: a verbal version of the visual image or event, which helps them to enjoy their lives fully.

“We firmly believe that all children have an equal right to education and development and strive to improve the quality of life of children with special educational needs. The idea of making audio-descriptions of the museum exhibits is only part of the big project “Discovering the World”, the purpose of which is to provide access to knowledge, creativity, cultural and spiritual heritage of our country for children with special educational needs for blind and visually impaired children”, - noted in a press release of the museum of the Nevzorov family.

Within the framework of the project, forty-seven artworks were audio-descripted in Russian and Kazakh languages. The voiced exhibits represent the fine art of Kazakhstan, the development of Russian art of the late XVIII - early XX century, Western European painting and graphics of the XVI - early XX century.

Also, the verbal description found the museum building itself and street approaches to it. The museum received 17 audio guides with a total length of more than 140 minutes. Interestingly, beside professional speakers’ other people were also involved in the recording of audio descriptions: well-known compatriots, artists from East Kazakhstan, invited friends, sponsors and partners of the Foundation “Dara”.

I am pleased that it was possible through our initiative (thanks to the auction @zardozi_fashion) and all our partners and friends who supported this project! In addition, a hundred more of us participated in the audio description of the masterpieces! It has a magic of inclusion – The more people are involved, the more we get incredible satisfaction and happiness - businessperson Jeanne Kahn commented on her Instagram.

“The content and description of the exhibits were very delicately worked out during the preparation of the audio recording, clear and easy words were used to make it to understandable, interesting for children and at the same time allow maximally convey the beauty of the object exhibited by the museum “According to the press release of the Nevzorov family museum.”

Presentation of the project “Opening the world: creation of accessible environment in museums of Kazakhstan” was held in honor of the International Day for Protection of Children. On that day, the were another similar presentation in the museums of Karaganda and Atyrau. In the city of Pavlodar, the presentation of the project will be hold on June 3 at the Pavlodar Regional Art Museum.