4 Kids: The Invisible Exhibit

This exhibit was developed to raise awareness about living with blindness. During the first part of the exhibit, your group is assigned a blind person as a guide. They lead you into various environments; all different, but all pitch-black. Using your hands and walking carefully, you feel your way through the exhibit and try to identify objects as you go. It takes about an hour before you see daylight again, but then your eyes are truly open.

The second part of the exhibit is an educational room where you can try your hand at playing games while blindfolded and examine some of the gadgets that make life easier for the blind.

It´s possible to ask for tours English or another foreign language. I don´t believe the language is necessary for the tour to be good. There´s a brief lecture on the history of the expo in the beginning, which I will go over in the “In Short” section below, but otherwise the exhibit works well as a non-verbal experience.

The organizers don´t recommend the show for children under 8. I took my 5 year-old and she was fine, but she´s a very brave little girl. With plenty of coaxing and reassuring, I think 6 and over would be ok. You know your own child best – if they scare easily then ask to do a micro-version of the tour, with just one or two rooms so you can beat a retreat before you´re lost in the labyrinth. Ask to be allowed to go out and back in – kids sometimes just need to try something a few times and know they can exit if they want to. I know what works for my own child, in terms of making her feel safe – reassuring voice, going slow, holding hands. I focused on appealing to her sense of wonder and complimented her on recognizing the objects we felt, rather than letting her start to worry about how long we were “stuck” in there. But if your child (or you, for that matter) is prone to panic attacks I´d give the show a miss, no matter what your age.

If you take your time and feel your way carefully, I don´t think you´ll get hurt. Some risks might be: fingers getting squeezed in cabinet doors or walking into furniture, or maybe dropping things onto your feet. Check in verbally with each other and know your child´s whereabouts. During the tour there are times when you want to feel the texture of the floor – guests are instructed to squat rather than bend over, to prevent banging their heads. Note: At the end of the tour you are seated in a dark “café” and your blind guide hands you a steaming hot beverage of your choice. So be careful!

The exhibit is worth the entrance fee. It´s well designed and you can´t put a price tag on building sensitivity towards people who are differently-abled – especially in children. The appreciation you have for your own vision when it´s over is also invaluable.

This exhibit is more like an activity – there is a specific sequence and timing to it. One of the goals is to show how you can live a relatively normal life without sight. It´s good to teach kids consideration for people who are differently-abled, but it´s also valuable to show them that apart from a few key things, we are not so different after all. When we were there, many of the other guests were partially or completely blind, as were the guides. That´s good – because children typically see one differently-abled person at a time, and they naturally arouse curiosity. Being surrounded by blind people helped normalize it, which is important.

We really enjoyed the “resource” room after the tour. The wall displays include information about famous blind musicians. There´s a Braille typewriter you can demo, and a timepiece that talks. The games and puzzles were the best, though. We wore blindfolds and tried our hand at playing specially designed games like chutes and ladders. The pieces were different shapes (as opposed to different colors) and each field had texture, so you could feel which way to go. The die has raised bumps. Apart from my daughter´s shameless attempts at cheating, it was like any other game.