Galleria Borghese expands accessibility for blind and deaf visitors

Galleria Borghese in Rome has been running an accessibility program since 2019, led by Stefania Vannini, offering guided tours, podcasts, and tactile experiences for blind, visually impaired, and deaf visitors. The program includes 'Le Storie del Cardinale Scipione e di Casa Borghese', a project co-designed with deaf art historian and guide Violante Nonno, which uses Italian Sign Language (LIS) and Visual Vernacular performances. Since January 2025, the tours have been enriched with Visual Vernacular artistic actions. The award-winning podcast 'Al di là del marmo', created with archaeologist Rasul Mojaverian and blind sculptors Lucilla D'Antilio and Antonella Bretschneider, describes archaeological sculptures in evocative language. It is now being released in LIS video versions and English. The museum offers tactile tours on Mondays, its closing day, using reproductions made by artists collaborating with D'Antilio. Future projects include 'Giardini Segreti', with tactile maps, audio descriptions, LIS videos, and a tactile book about the Borghese collection's history.