Offer for people with disabilities
We invite you to take advantage of our offer of free workshops and tours tailored to the needs of people with disabilities.
The offer is available to both individual visitors and groups of people with impaired vision, hearing, both vision and hearing (deafblind), intellectual disabilities and on the autism spectrum. Details of the visit should be agreed with the Department of Education of the Emigration Museum in Gdynia at least one week before the proposed date of the tour or workshop.
All tours and workshops are conducted by external guides and workshop instructors who are trained to work with people with particular disabilities.
The guide support may start at the moment the Museum’s guest is collected from the bus stop. They will be happy to show you to all the points of interest (changing rooms, toilets, cafe, etc.) and provide necessary support.
OFFER FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED
- Free tour of the permanent exhibition
Guided by experts in audio description, who will help persons with visual disabilities to get to know the building and discover those elements of the exhibition that can be experienced by more than sight.
- Free workshop offer addressed to children
On a journey | Children will learn about issues related to foreign travel – whether someone leaves the country permanently or only undertakes a short journey. Based on the content of suitcases of the travellers and emigrants from different decades, we will try to figure out their reasons for leaving and what destinations were most popular.
- Free workshop offer addressed to adults
Living abroad | The aim of the workshop is to actively show the participants what emigration really is, how much the people who have decided to change their place of residence on a permanent basis and their experiences differ from one another.
OFFER FOR PERSONS WITH HEARING OR SPEECH IMPAIRMENTS
- Free tour of the permanent exhibition
Conducted in the Polish Sign Language.
- Free workshop offer addressed to children and adults
The workshops conducted in the Polish Sign Language are focused on visual and sensory issues of the exhibition, presenting topics in a manner adequate for the impaired of hearing.
Who am I? Where am I from? | During the workshops, participants, in various ways, will consider what family means for us and try to create their own genealogical trees, inspired by family stories from the core exhibition.
OFFER FOR THE DEAFBLIND
- Free tour of the permanent exhibition
Conducted by qualified guides-interpreters (SKOGN interpreters).
OFFER FOR PERSONS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES AND ON THE AUTISM SPECTRUM
- Free tour of the permanent exhibition
Guides for persons with intellectual disabilities will guide the group and provide insights into the main threads of the exhibition in an adequate manner.
- Free workshop offer addressed to children
Great journey | Workshops deal with the topic of travelling safely and adequate preparation for the trip. Participants learn of the basic cultural differences which are characteristic of different countries and regions.
- Free workshop offer addressed to adults
Across the Ocean | Workshops focus on topics connected with travelling. While following the map with their fingertips, participants will consider where they would like to go to, how to get there, and how the means of travel changed over the last 100 years.
Five days on the “Batory” | Workshops discuss the realities of life on a ship, not only from the passenger’s perspective. Participants will pay particular attention to professions and work that can be performed on a transatlantic liner.
Contact Details
Marta Otrębska
Education Officer and Accessibility Officer
m.otrebska@muzeumemigracji.pl
+48 58 670 41 56
+48 539 998 937
You can call us in Polish sign language by clicking on the icon: 
Please provide the following information: date of the visit, number of people, special needs (whether the group includes people with hearing or vision impairments, people in wheelchairs etc.)
Museum without Exception 2015-2018
Between 2015 and 2018, the Emigration Museum in Gdynia implemented four editions of the “Museum without Exception” project, co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. Its purpose was to make the Emigration Museum’s offer more available to persons with intellectual, vision, hearing, and vision and hearing disabilities.
As part of each edition, anyone interested could take advantage of the range of free thematic workshops and tours of the permanent exhibition, and benefit from sign language interpretation services during events organised at the Museum.
The guides were prepared to present the subject of the permanent exhibition to persons with disabilities. Guided tours for people with hearing impairments were translated into the Polish Sign Language or Signed Polish. Visually impaired people received support from guides trained in audio description, who helped them move around the building and discover elements of the exhibition that can be experienced through touch. Deafblind people were able to take advantage of the support provided by qualified guides-interpreters (SKOGN interpreters). Guides for people with intellectual disabilities, depending on their needs, could present the main themes of the permanent exhibition during the tour in an accessible manner and assist individuals during the visit, allowing each person to experience it in their own way.
Workshops prepared for blind and visually impaired persons presented the issue of emigration – what it is, what are its faces, and what destinations are the most popular. People with intellectual disabilities had an opportunity to take a journey across the ocean and get to know life on board the legendary transatlantic liner, the M/S Batory. Participants of workshops intended for the deaf created their own genealogical trees, inspired by the stories told on the permanent exhibition.
Details of individual editions of the project can be found below. The offer of tours and workshops is still available as part of the permanent offer of the Museum without Exception.
2015
During the first edition of the project, participants could benefit from the translation of events from the “Beyond the Borders of Art” (“Za granicą sztuki”) and series and meetings with writers (including Łukasz Orbitowski and Grażyna Plebanek) into sign language as part of the “Literature without Borders” series.
2016
In 2016, an additional activity implemented as part of the project was to create, together with pupils of the SOSW no. 1 and with photographers from the FRAMES School of Photography (FRAMES Studium Fotografii), a guide to the permanent exhibition of the Emigration Museum in Gdynia.
The publication is dedicated to people with intellectual disabilities and on the autism spectrum, as well as those who want to prepare for a visit at the Emigration Museum. The guide leads its readers, in a clear and precisely manner, through all stages of the visit to the Museum – from arriving at the Museum building, to the entrance to the exhibition. It helps people to familiarise themselves with the rules of the Museum so that the visit itself goes well.
The guide has been supplemented with photographs taken by the participants of photographic workshops. Young people with intellectual disabilities chose places at the exhibition which they deemed to be the most attractive and immortalised them in the photos. Showing a slightly different perspective of experiencing the exhibition, they encouraged everyone to discover and experience the exhibition on their own, without exception.
The guide can be downloaded in PDF format, printed out and brought to the Museum.
2017
In 2017, every Wednesday those interested could benefit from the translation of the free genealogical consultations conducted at the Museum into sign language. As part of this edition of the project, cooperation with the Special Care and Education Centre No. 1 in Gdynia (Specjalny Ośrodek Szkolno-Wychowawczy nr 1 w Gdyni) was undertaken. Its students and graduates took part in a series of theatre, music, and modelling workshops which lasted several months. The result of all that work was a family integration event “Let’s get to know each other!” held at the museum on 3 December 2017.
The programme of the event was prepared by students and graduates of the Special School and Educational Centre No. 1 in Gdynia under the care of Barbara Milewska, in cooperation with invited guests. The entire event was translated into sign language.
The event included an exhibition of photographs made by project participants.
2018
In 2018, a commercial was created together with the Association for the Assistance of the Deafblind (Towarzystwo Pomocy Głuchoniewidomym), which shows the importance of the role of an interpreter – a guide in the life of people with this disability.
As part of the fourth edition of the project, cooperation with the Special Care and Education Centre No. 1 in Gdynia (Specjalny Ośrodek Szkolno-Wychowawczy nr 1 w Gdyni) was continued. Its students and graduates took part in a series of theatre, music, and clothes-making workshops which lasted several months. The final result of the workshops was a family, integration event “Together at Polska 1”, which took place on 2 December 2018.
The programme, inspired by the culture of North American cities, was prepared together with invited guests. The entire event was translated into sign language.
The event included an open artistic zone in the Transit Warehouse. Participants could experience the world of people with simultaneous impairment to their vision and hearing using simulators and dedicated accessories prepared by the Association for the Assistance of the Deafblind (Towarzystwo Pomocy Głuchoniewidomym).
Projects from Museum without Exception series were co-financed from the Culture Promotion Fund of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage. Project partners: Association for the Assistance of the Deafblind (Towarzystwo Pomocy Głuchoniewidomy), Integration Centre (Centrum Integracja), and the Special Care and Education Centre No. 1 in Gdynia (Specjalny Ośrodek Szkolno-Wychowawczy nr 1 w Gdyni).
