Problem addressed

People who are blind and partially sighted are the disability group with the lowest employment rate in Europe. The biggest obstacle for visually impaired job seekers is not their disability itself, but rather prejudice. There is a lack of general knowledge about what blind people can and cannot do, with a resultant prejudice against hiring or working with them. These prejudices can be overcome through interaction, as people learn from encounters and experiences. However, spaces where people with and without disabilities can interact and respectfully learn from each other are rare.

Innovative solution

Dialogmuseum (DM) Frankfurt aims to provide such spaces for interaction and learning, while also providing employment for people with disabilities. The ambassadors and tour guides at DM are people who have a visual impairment. DM offers visitors the opportunity to experience parts of the world in complete darkness. It gives them an insight into the life of a visually impaired person, while being guided around the exhibit by one. The intention is to create a role reversal, where the visually impaired person is the expert and the visitors must trust in their guide. The guided tour lasts 60 minutes, visiting four adventure rooms, or 90 minutes, visiting six adventure rooms. Each guided group consists of eight people and one visually impaired guide.

Dialogmuseum (DM) in Frankurt was founded in 2005 as a follow-up to the ‘Dialogue in the Dark’ project, which seeks to create exhibition spaces in which people experience everyday life in complete darkness in order to raise awareness of visual impairment. Both projects are owned and operated by the Dialogue Social Enterprise, which aims to create shared experiences between people who have disabilities and those who do not.

DM operates entirely as a social enterprise dedicated to providing employment for people who have a disability. It thus fulfils the status of an ‘integration company’, offering a specific percentage of its positions to people with disabilities.

Key results and benefits

By the end of 2016, DM had 26 full-time employees, nine temporary staff and three volunteers.

Approximately 70% of all visitors to the museum are young people in education. DM works with schools, providing teachers with educational materials to prepare for and follow-up on the experience. After finding that only 10% of teachers who visit the museum use them, these materials have been made more widely accessible and available for free download on DM’s website, entitled ‘The Pedagogical Booklet’. In addition, DM has developed the ‘Invisible Friend’ project, offering children the chance to tour DM and carry out tasks alongside the visually impaired ambassadors. The goal is to encourage social exchange between people who have a disability and those who do not, and to act as a learning exercise for younger generations. Since 2008, more than 5 000 children have taken part in the ‘Invisible Friend’ project, throughout 12 different running periods and from 200 different school classes in the Rhine-Main area of Frankfurt.

Potential for mainstreaming

70% of the revenue of the DM comes from ticket sales, events and workshops, 14% from donations and grants, and 16% from the integration service fees paid by the local employment authority due to their status as an ‘integration company’.

Since December 2018, DM has been closed to visitors due to its relocation to a new building within Frankfurt. It is hoped that the new, more central location will increase the number of visitors. DM had hoped to reopen in September 2020, but those plans are on hold due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

The project has strong potential to be transferred to other contexts. Within Germany, the Dialoghaus in Hamburg houses the permanent ‘Dialogue in Silence’ and ‘Dialogue with Time’ exhibitions. Using a social franchising model, the Dialogue Social Enterprise has a total of 29 locations in 20 countries worldwide, delivering projects with a focus on shared experiences and role reversal between people who have a disability and those who do not.  

In 2017, Dialogue in the Dark was awarded the Mariano Gago Ecsite award in the category of ‘Sustainable Success’. This award highlights organisations who demonstrate innovation and creativity through their work. In addition, Andreas Heinecke was named as an Ashoka Fellow in Europe in 2005, and a Global Fellow of the Schwab Foundation in 2007, for his work and the success of the social enterprise.