With a small grant from the Balkan Museum Network, cultural heritage in the museum of Bitola is presented in a new way, taking into account that the website of the Bitola Museum is already designed as “responsive”, suitable for viewing on all mobile devices. Some activities that increased the accessibility of museum are descriptive texts (both in Macedonian and English), audio narrations and videos in sign language for fourteen (14) representative objects from the museum exhibition. Next to each object in the exhibition, a QR code is placed, which when scanned with a mobile phone leads the visitor to an appropriate web location. The entire museum is covered with free Wi-Fi Internet connection, which was also enabled within this project. The advantage of this approach is that visitors use their own smartphones and tablets, with which they can view, comment and share comments about the objects and the exhibition they are enjoying. Adding an audio narration, allows the visitor’s smartphone also to be used as an audio guide. Using fusing machine for the production of tactile images, the project team produce twenty-one (21) tactile images for the interpretation of museum objects. Some of these objects were also described with produced audio content that was tailored for the needs of blind and visually impaired visitors.This approach is relatively new and in the following period it will be further tested and improved. The project was implemented in cooperation with the experts and organizations from the Balkan region and to our great satisfaction, the pupils from the Institute for Rehabilitation of Children with Impaired Hearing – “Koco Racin” Bitola, were the first to test the new services. It was evident that the children enjoyed seeing in person the objects from their school textbooks, presented in a sign language and with audio description. This project was implemented with the support of the Headley Trust UK.

The source of tex and a photo is NI Institute and Museum Bitola.