Rules of Guiding People with Visual Impairments
28 August 2020
In 2020, we started working on the project “Touch the Memory” together with the NGO “Cultural Geographies” and Olga Svet. Our goal is to adapt the museum’s work for blind or partially sighted people. For the first time in Ukraine, blind visitors learn the history of the Holodomor directly from primary sources: tactile photos created on the basis of the museum collection and memoirs of Holodomor witnesses collected as part of the Oral History of the Holodomor project.
As part of the project, we publish rules for accompanying people with visual impairments.
The materials were provided by a rehabilitation specialist and inclusion specialist Yevhen Sviet.
- You should introduce yourself.
- Ask the name of a person.
- Do not impose your help, but only offer it.
- Clarify, on which side of the listener it is better to stand on.
- The guide should bend their arm, and if necessary, the listener will take it above the elbow
- It is necessary to inform about any obstacles (to stop in front of them, to announce on which side and what is, and if there is a ladder in front the guide must emphasize where they lead up or down).
- Establish communication, do not violate personal space.
- Do not skip sentences or words when reading the text.
- You must tell the person if someone else joins you during the escort.
- Do not touch the cane or guide dog without the permission of the owner.