ABSTRACT:
This paper analyzed the museum experience visually impaired visitors had in the Physics environment of a Science Museum. Museum experience is understood as the set consisting of the main emotions, sensations, experiences and learning, resulting from the interaction of the visitor with the objects and discourses in a museum. Six CAE-DV students from two public schools in Maringá participated in this study. The data collection was divided in three moments: pre-visit semi-structured interview; non-participant observation during the visit and post-visit semi-structured interview. The analysis of the observational was based on a set of categories developed in the literature. The analysis of the data from the semi-structured interviews was based on Discoursive Textual Analysis. The results showed that providing explanations of the apparatuses by the monitors accompanied by the touch and handling of the visually impaired visitor was responsible for a gratifying museum experience by the participants. When they felt welcomed by the differentiated attention given in the descriptions of the experiments, they became more comfortable and active in the dialogues that occurred during the visit, arousing the interest for learning what was presented in each experiment.
KEYWORD:
Special Education; Visual Impairment; Teaching of Physics; Museum