There are impressive exhibits that can be seen in the exhibition on historical aviation in the Deutsches Museum. But the visitor turns her back on the Junkers F13, a commercial aircraft that made its maiden flight in 1919. Two small models on a scale of 1:48 fascinate the president of the social association VdK, Verena Bentele. Your fingers touch the model of the first all-metal passenger aircraft, which is produced on a stainless steel 3D printer. “There was the passenger cabin,” says Bentele. Then she switches to the Dornier A/Libelle model, a small flying boat that made its maiden flight in 1921. Her fingers examine the machine, she feels the stubby wings on the fuselage below. “I could never imagine a seaplane.”
Tactile models are extremely important for blind people, emphasizes the former biathlete and cross-country skier. Because “details are always forgotten when a sighted person explains something”. And beyond that, a “haptic impression is also nice for other people”.
When modernizing the museum, “we attached great importance to being a house for everyone,” says General Director Wolfgang M. Heckl. Verena Bentele was able to convince herself of this during a tour. Not only are all exhibitions on the Museum Island now accessible by ramp, elevator or lift. Structural challenges in a house that opened almost 100 years ago, as Sandra Kittmann calls it, responsible for accessibility in the Deutsches Museum. You are still struggling with doors, you have to wait for the lifts to be operated with the key for insurance reasons. “Accessibility has to get through people’s minds,” explains Kittmann. It’s not about “special solutions for marginalized groups”, but “everyone should be able to learn”. Regardless of age, education, mental or physical condition, the museum wants to “convince all visitors of the fascination of the natural sciences,” says Heckl.
That has already been achieved with Verena Bentele. During a two-hour tour, she saw for herself how the museum makes the exhibitions in the first, renovated part of the building, which opened last year, accessible to blind and visually impaired people. Tactile reliefs and graphics, braille and prismatic writing, audio information, guided tours in sign language, explanations in plain language and a free museum app facilitate access.
A special experience for Bentele are the famous sunflowers by the painter Vincent van Gogh as a tactile image – transferred by an artist in cast bronze. Even what is in the foreground and background “is quite easy to understand,” says Bentele. She was greatly impressed by the tactile book “Oh Schreck, Elise ist weg”, which was developed by the Deutsches Museum for visually impaired children and can be borrowed from the museum’s children’s area. Bentele, blind from birth, had only one touch book. “There was nothing when I was little, it was a pity. As a child, I really wished there was something like that. A nice idea.”