Information for blind and partially sighted visitors

Wakefield Museum is on the lower ground floor of the Wakefield One building. The main entrance to the building on Cliff Lane is fully level access.

You can also access the building from Burton Street. From here you enter on the upper ground floor. You can go down in a lift or use the stairs to reach the lower ground floor Wakefield Museum entrance.

Both the Cliff Lane and Burton Street building entrances have automatic sliding doors.

The door to enter Wakefield Museum inside has an accessible entry button on a handrail on the right-hand side. It is wide enough to allow access for wheelchairs. This door opens outwards.

There are three exhibition areas within Wakefield Museum. They are level access and fully wheelchair accessible throughout. 

The floor is made of marmoleum (similar to lino). This is a matte and non-reflective surface.

When a special exhibition is running, the double doors to that gallery will be propped open.

Most of our Visitor Experience Assistants have attended Visual Impairment Training and Sighted Guided Training. All of our staff will be happy to help you get the most from your visit.

Some of our exhibition spaces have low light levels to protect the delicate objects on display. There are low lighting levels in the Plastic Fantastic? exhibition gallery. This is to protect the artworks on display from light over-exposure.

The lights in the A World of Good gallery are operated by a motion sensor. This is to help protect the delicate objects on display from light damage. When no-one is in the gallery, it will be dark. If you are the first person to enter the gallery in a while, the lights will come on as you go in.

There is a large glass display case inset into the floor of the A World of Good gallery. The lights in this case will also come on as you enter the space. You can walk or wheel over this case.

There are magnifying glasses available in our Pick and Mix station in the Welcome Space. You can take objects from the Pick and Mix station with you around the galleries.

There are hands-on elements around the galleries.

In the Welcome Space, there is a Stone Age hand axe and polished axe head below the display case that you can touch. There is also a quern stone interactive that you can touch.

In the main gallery, the wooden Victorian Wakefield Prison door is on open display. You can touch this. There is also a working clocking-in machine that you can put a timecard into and get it punched.

In the Front Room there is a child-sized 1950s toy kitchen. It is full of toy food and kitchen utensils.   

In the Plastic Fantastic? exhibition there are five mini replica objects of some of the key objects on display. These are fixed to the waist-height barriers that go around the main exhibition space. You can touch these.

In the interactive area just outside the main exhibition space there are three activities to try.

• The first activity is about separating plastics using different liquids. You can turn the three bottles attached to the wall to mix up the plastics and liquid.   

• The second activity is a timeline and facts activity. Match the facts to when they happened in the past on the timeline. You can find the answers around the main gallery, or ask a member of staff for help.

• The third activity is a plastic sorting activity. Work out which of the six types of plastic each object is and place it in the matching basket.

There are mirrors next to the dressing up areas in the main gallery and the Front Room. These are fixed to the corresponding walls or units.

There is a mirror as part of the mid-century dressing table display in the Plastic Fantastic? exhibition open display area.

The glass display cases on the walls can have a slight reflection depending on where you are stood. The objects on the walls can also cast a slight shadow below them on the wall.

There are audio elements in parts of the exhibition spaces. In the main gallery, most of these are connected to headphones.

There is one audio element in the main gallery which is triggered by someone moving into the space by the Wakefield Prison door. This plays audio of children singing ‘Here we go round the Mulberry Bush’.

In the Front Room, there is a 1940s wireless radio interactive which plays audio from Second World War oral history interviews when the tactile buttons are pressed.

There is a large audio-visual screen in the Plastic Fantastic? exhibition. This will play a video exploring how domestic waste is recycled in the Wakefield district. The video auto-plays on a loop. The audio plays through headphones, which are attached to the screen. If you would like the volume turning up or down, please ask a member of staff. The video lasts around 3 minutes. A faint bit of the audio bleeds into the main gallery from the headphones when it is playing.

There is a gentle ambient humming in the exhibition space from the air conditioning when this is on.

In the A World of Good gallery there is a soundscape. It includes a voiceover from David Attenborough and Michael Palin. Bird song and other ambient noises play in the background of the audio. The narration lasts 5 minutes. It will play automatically every 15 minutes. In between plays, there will be ambient bird song noises playing in the gallery.

There is also an audio-visual screen in the A World of Good gallery. There are 3 short films to choose from on this screen. There are buttons to press to start and stop the films. The audio plays through headphones. All the films have closed captions. There is also a rolling slideshow of images on this screen. The slideshow plays automatically as a screensaver until you press a button to start a film. There is no audio on the screensaver slideshow.

The fire alarms in the Wakefield One building are tested every Thursday around 11am. They will sound from one to three times. There will be a tannoy announcement shortly before the alarms are tested.

There is an audio description guide to accompany the Plastic Fantastic? exhibition.

The guide is accessed by scanning the QR code on the panel at the entrance to exhibition on your device. Alternatively, you can preload it here.

Some of our bookable activities and workshops are in the Museum Learning Zone. This room is at the back of Wakefield Library. Wakefield Library is on the floor above Wakefield Museum within the Wakefield One building. You can reach this by using lifts or the stairs.

To reach the Learning Zone, turn right inside the Library and go through the Children’s section. The Learning Zone is in the top left corner. It has windows along the wall and a door. The doorway is wide enough to fit most wheelchairs and pushchairs and can be widened if needed.