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How A Berlin Museum Makes Science Touchable
A museum can hold 30 million objects and still feel inaccessible if the experience depends on sight alone. We sit down with Tina Schneider from the Natural History Museum in Berlin to hear how her team is pushing beyond digitisation and into real world inclusion by turning digital specimens into tactile, responsive learning tools.
Tina shares the moment that changed her priorities: a visitor tells her how her blind daughter arrived thrilled to see the dinosaurs, then felt bored and left early because there was so little she could touch. From there, we unpack the practical constraints museums face, including fragile historic specimens and preservation chemicals like arsenic that make handling unsafe. The solution is not “touch the collection” but build safe, accurate stand ins: digital twins that become tactile models designed for hands.
We walk through two builds. First, an interactive crocodile prototype with sensors and headphones that plays audio when visitors touch specific areas. Then the big leap forward: the 3D interactive beetle. With input from a focus group of blind and visually impaired participants, the team abandons hidden touchpoints and creates a touch anywhere sensor system. Even the tricky transitions between head, wings, and legs get solved with a clever cue: audio volume shifts as your hands move, helping you orient yourself naturally. Along the way, we talk interdisciplinary teamwork, museum education, inclusive design, and why dung beetles are an essential part of ecosystem health.
If you care about museum accessibility, tactile exhibits, audio description, or how 3D technology can widen access to science, you will get practical ideas here. Subscribe, share this with someone building public experiences, and leave a review with one object you wish every museum made touchable.
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By Antonio Santos, Debra Ruh, Neil Milliken
5
11 ratings
A museum can hold 30 million objects and still feel inaccessible if the experience depends on sight alone. We sit down with Tina Schneider from the Natural History Museum in Berlin to hear how her team is pushing beyond digitisation and into real world inclusion by turning digital specimens into tactile, responsive learning tools.
Tina shares the moment that changed her priorities: a visitor tells her how her blind daughter arrived thrilled to see the dinosaurs, then felt bored and left early because there was so little she could touch. From there, we unpack the practical constraints museums face, including fragile historic specimens and preservation chemicals like arsenic that make handling unsafe. The solution is not “touch the collection” but build safe, accurate stand ins: digital twins that become tactile models designed for hands.
We walk through two builds. First, an interactive crocodile prototype with sensors and headphones that plays audio when visitors touch specific areas. Then the big leap forward: the 3D interactive beetle. With input from a focus group of blind and visually impaired participants, the team abandons hidden touchpoints and creates a touch anywhere sensor system. Even the tricky transitions between head, wings, and legs get solved with a clever cue: audio volume shifts as your hands move, helping you orient yourself naturally. Along the way, we talk interdisciplinary teamwork, museum education, inclusive design, and why dung beetles are an essential part of ecosystem health.
If you care about museum accessibility, tactile exhibits, audio description, or how 3D technology can widen access to science, you will get practical ideas here. Subscribe, share this with someone building public experiences, and leave a review with one object you wish every museum made touchable.
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
Follow axschat on social media.
Bluesky:
Antonio https://bsky.app/profile/akwyz.com
Debra https://bsky.app/profile/debraruh.bsky.social
Neil https://bsky.app/profile/neilmilliken.bsky.social
axschat https://bsky.app/profile/axschat.bsky.social
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoniovieirasantos/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/axschat/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilmilliken/
Vimeo
https://vimeo.com/akwyz
https://twitter.com/axschat
https://twitter.com/AkwyZ
https://twitter.com/neilmilliken
https://twitter.com/debraruh