Showing The Lives Of The Blind In Kyiv

November 27, 2020

This museum in Kyiv offers tours in total darkness to give visitors insight into the lives of people with visual impairment. Unofficially, there are around 100 thousand such people in Ukraine. The 3 AM museum invites its visitors into a black room that recreates some everyday locations and helps visitors learn more in a gallery of sculptures

To experience the world outside as a blind person does, one can take the Feel Kyiv walking tour, led by blind guides. With a mask on, people learn how to move around with a white cane, and perform tasks like pouring water from a pump, or buying a coffee in complete darkness.

Tour guide Yaroslav says their visitors get a good experience. But also see how poorly adapted the city is for blind people, with everything from concrete domes on sidewalks, to serious social stigma. Since real life Kyiv is more difficult than the tour, the museum plans to have a more difficult route, to help people understand the real-life struggles of blind people.

The material was prepared with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation within the framework of the project Stories from Ukraine. The material reflects the position of the authors and does not necessarily coincide with the position of the International Renaissance Foundation.