Accessible Museums' Facilities for Visually Impaired Visitors Applicable Project in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo

Abstract

Museums are the memory of societies, the veritable images and the mirrors which reflect the heritage values on everyday life. Museums always inspire visitors and send their souls and minds to times and ages that are full of values and authenticity. Visiting museums is always one of the most attractive planned activities of any touristic program especially in a country like Egypt. Indeed, there are many unique great museums in Egypt where the government is working to apply many plans and strategies to improve these museums and upgrade their displays and facilities which attract visitors, support tourism and by extension increase the national income. The Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Cairo is one of the greatest Islamic museums in the world (The museum includes various and unique collections of artifacts, which number up to 100,000 pieces). This amazing museum reopened in 2017 after a car bomb attack targeting the Cairo Police Headquarters on the other side of the street which caused considerable damage to the museum and destroyed many artifacts. This paper is presenting an applicable approach (a current project) to enhance the visit to MIA for visually impaired and blind people by manufacturing copies of many collectibles masterpieces. In fact, there are many technological applications which help visual impaired and blind people when visiting museums, but the majority of these applications are expensive and require many arrangements. The objective of this paper is to describe and discuss the production process of selective masterpieces' copies which are produced to be ready for presenting side by side with the original pieces.