A tour of the MuZIEum in Nijmegen

A few weeks ago a had a few hours to kill whilst pottering around in Nijmegen. A quick flick through Google Maps to look for museums and the MuZIEum popped up. The MuZIEum gives people a chance to experience what it’s like to be blind or partially sighted - either through experiences in the MuZIEum itself or through guided city tours. I’m spending a lot more time in my job looking at accessibility so I thought it would be worth a go. I booked myself in for one of the dark experiences as it was tipping it down outside and joined a group of five people for the English language tour.

Before you start, there’s a quick audio tour where you’re blindfolded and played a five minute sketch. My basic Dutch wasn’t up to following along that well but you get the gist of it as an intro to the experience.

We then went upstairs - stashed everything in a locker (including anything that would have a light on it) then were given a guide stick and lead into a starter room to acclimatize to the dark. Our guide Jon then came in from the main area, ran us through what would happen then we all tapped our way in.

The tour itself was Jon showing us through different scenarios (like a house, a shop, a bar) in absolute darkness. It took a little getting used to working your way around with a stick but I found I got used to it quite quickly. Jon was very reassuring by constantly asking questions of us by names and checking where we were in the room. The group did bump into each other quite a bit but that’s to be expected of people who aren’t used to it. We also talked a lot about how our respective countries (Japan / Costa Rica / Spain / UK) fit people with a sight disability into society. Jon even asked me about Brexit, which seems inescapable even in a pitch black room in a shopping centre in Nijmegen.

I loved the experience. I wouldn’t recommend it if you get too claustrophobic or panicky but everyone should have a go at least once. I will definitely try and go back to do the walkaround tour the next time I’m there.

More details about English tours here - https://muzieum.nl/english-tours