In 2016, as part of a project implemented by the Kultura Bez Barier (Culture Without Barriers) Foundation in Warsaw, a three-day training course on servicing disabled visitors was held at the National Museum in Lublin. Museum employees learned about the problems of people with sight, hearing and movement disabilities and tried to empathise with the role of people with disabilities. A large part of the training was devoted to the principles of writing audio description.
The cooperation resulted in the following amenities for people with disabilities:
In 2017, a series of workshops for blind and visually impaired children and adolescents from the Prof. Zofia Sękowska Special Educational-Didactic Centre for Disabled Children and Youth in Lublin. They were attended by 30 participants from primary, middle and high schools. Each group took part in two meetings devoted to the history of the castle hill and the most valuable artefacts of the Museum. During the workshops, educational materials were used that were adapted to the participants’ cognitive abilities, especially activating the sense of touch, hearing and smell. Financing from the National Centre for Culture as part of the Very Young Culture program for 2016–2018 was allocated to the production and purchase of the following educational materials:
On the occasion of the 700th anniversary of granting city rights to Lublin in 2017, a competition was organised aimed at children and young people from the Lublin Voivodeship with sight, hearing, movement and intellectual disabilities. The competition was conducted in two categories:
As part of the competition, 10 free lessons on the history of the castle and the castle hill were conducted, attended by students from special school and education centres from the region, students of integration classes, pupils of the Active Rehabilitation Foundation and young patients from the Children’s Clinical Hospital in Lublin. About 70 participants took part in the competition. The first prize was funded by the First Lady – Mrs. Agata Kornhauser-Duda.
Since 2016, the Museum has been cooperating with the Kultura Bez Barier (Culture Without Barriers) Foundation on a project consisting in making the collections of Polish museums and galleries available to people with sensory disabilities. As part of the project, selected objects from our Museum were digitised, audio descriptions, descriptions in a simplified text and translations into Polish sign language were created. The materials were published on the project website and in the application for mobile devices. Detailed information can be found at www.czytanieobrazow.pl.
In 2017, the Museum received funding from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage under the “Cultural Infrastructure” program. The aim of the project was primarily to increase access to the cultural offer of the Museum for people with visual and hearing disabilities and to increase its attractiveness through the use of modern technologies. As part of the funding, the following was purchased:
In 2018, the Museum received funding from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage as part of the “Cultural Infrastructure” program. The following equipment was purchased: