Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
KURAM VE UYGULAMADA EGITIM BILIMLERI, cilt.9, sa.3, ss.1191-1204, 2009 (SSCI)
The aim of this study is to determine what the visually impaired students already know about museums, how museums contribute to their learning and what those students expect to gain from their visits to the museums in Turkey and thus, to enable them to have more valuable experiences. For this purpose, a visit to the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations was organized for a group of visually impaired students. The study is a sample case study carried out with a small group. Qualitative data were obtained from interviews, observations, and the compositions written by the students to reflect on their experiences after the visit. The data were encoded according to content analysis and then, categories and subcategories were formed. The results revealed that blind students expect to have the copies of the works of art, embossed forms of the drawings, and some explanations in Braille alphabet. They would like some attendants to inform them about the museums while the other students who suffer from low vision expect to have more spacious and better lighted interiors, contrasting colors in exhibitions, and scripts in large-prints. The study shows that visits to museums are very beneficial for the visually impaired students, but unfortunately the educational activities for those students are still insufficient in Turkey.