Information for d/Deaf and hard of hearing visitors

You can download a floor plan of the museum.

You can download a sensory map of the main galleries before your visit.

You can download a sensory map of our Plastic Fantastic? feature exhibition.

Copies of both sensory maps are available in the Pick and Mix station in the Welcome Space.

The film in the Before Wakefield gallery has subtitles (no sound plays from this video). The Charles Waterton films are subtitled in English.

There are audio elements in parts of the exhibition spaces. In the main gallery, these are touch-activated and play out loud. There is one audio element in the main gallery which is triggered by someone moving into the space by the Wakefield Prison door and 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 video is subtitled in English. British Sign Language (BSL) interpretation of the video will be coming soon. 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.