Hands-on with ancient history at the British Museum

I recently went to London with a friend, and we decided to be ambitious and visit three museums in one day. It was a lot, but I’m so glad that we did. One of the places we really wanted to visit was the British Museum. Neither of us had been before, but I’d read on their website that they’ve improved their accessibility, so I was eager to check out what they’ve done.

Booking a touch tour

I tried to book a touch tour with the museum, however I didn’t have much success. Despite emailing asking some very specific questions about access for blind people and how to book a touch tour, I received generic accessibility information from them, including advice about hearing loops. It’s good that they provide access info, but they need to improve their direct communication with potential visitors. By the time we’d been through a back and forth, they said they had no guides available on the day I was visiting. If you’re going to book a touch tour, I recommend preparing yourself for them to be unhelpful at first, and stick at it, while also giving yourself plenty of time.

Even without the guided tour, we decided that we would visit, as my friend is sighted and would be able to navigate the self-guided touch tour route.

At the museum

The people working at the museum couldn’t have been more helpful. They provided us with information about the Egyptian sculpture gallery, including a lanyard which would mean security would allow me to touch the sculptures. You can pick up a braille book in the gallery which has information about each of the sculptures, a tactile map, and tactile images of the sculptures. This is especially helpful as some of them are really big so you can’t actually reach the top of them.

Getting to touch the sculptures was amazing. It is incredible to think that they have existed for thousands of years, and interacting with them in this way really does illustrate just how detailed they are. It is one thing to read about them, and quite another to touch them.

I particularly enjoyed exploring the hieroglyphics that are carved into the sculptures, as although I’ve read a lot about these, I didn’t really have a good understanding of what they looked like.

Unfortunately, quite a few other visitors were pretty rude and approached my friend and I to let us know that I shouldn’t be touching things. I understand that they didn’t know I was blind, but if you happen to see someone touching things in a museum, have a quiet word with security instead of having a go at the person. It was really exhausting to keep explaining to people that I was blind, as they loudly discussed what I was doing and how terrible it was. Thankfully museum security were amazing and didn’t bother me at all once they saw my lanyard.

You can also visit the Parthenon gallery, which I was initially really looking forward to as I thought it would be similar to the Egyptian sculpture gallery. Although you can touch a few relief images, you can’t actually touch any of the sculptures so it turned out to be a bit less interesting than I’d initially thought it would be. We may have misunderstood what we could and couldn’t touch, as the information was far less clear, so this would be worth clarifying before you visit the museum.

All in all it was a great visit, and I’d really love to go back. I hope they create touch tours in more galleries, as this was only a tiny bit of what the museum has to offer. However, it’s a great first step and I can’t wait to see what happens in future!

Things to consider

• Although the tour is self-guided, it would be hard to navigate alone as a blind person as the only indication that you can touch a particular sculpture is a visual symbol.
• Make sure to pick up a lanyard, and let security in the gallery know that you are there. They are nice and understand what a touch tour is.
• Grab a copy of the braille guide book so that you can take a look at the tactile images and map.