Museum of Possibilities Opened for Persons With Disability in Chennai
Chief Minister MK Stalin inaugurated the Museum of Possibilities, which has several assistive and adaptive devices that would help persons with disabilities lead a normal life.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on 6th June 2022 inaugurated Anaithum Saathiyam, or ‘Museum of Possibilities’, which has several assistive and adaptive devices that would help persons with disabilities lead a proper life. The museum has been set up at the Commissionerate For Welfare of the Differently Abled on the Lady Willington campus. It was established by the State government at a cost of Rs one crore on about 2,500 sq feet area. The museum showcases various adaptations and technologies that will help people with all kinds of disabilities to be independent. The museum has features such as education tools, playing tools, handwork tools, computer access, application and software for independent living, scan and read technology and so on. This museum aims to help people with disabilities to participate in various day-to-day activities. Persons with disabilities (PwDs) visiting the museum could try new technologies and see if it works for them. S Vedhavalli, project associate at Vidhya Sagar, an NGO which worked with the department to create the museum said, “Even newly-developed technology will also be housed in the museum,”
One of the important features of the museum is a model house set up for differently-abled in which a sample kitchen, bed room and restrooms are present. For instance, the kitchen contains slabs of variable heights for different kinds of differently-abled persons. Similarly, the bedroom contains special beds for them and the restrooms have different kinds of seating arrangements, special bars for them to hold and so on. Apart from these, the museum also showcases products made by disabled persons that the visitors can buy. For this the most important feature of the museum is that every equipment has a QR code so that the persons with disability can scan them to obtain the details of the objects such as their price and the place where it is available. There is also a cafe run by six disabled persons. Interested PwDs can enroll themselves for a skill training programme in the cafe. Those who can’t come to the museum in person can also visit tnmop.in for a virtual tour. Stalin in his speech said, “I choose to closely work with the department for differently abled like my father. He was the first one to start a separate department for differently abled. The state government was taking steps to ensure that such people had access to basic amenities and they lived a life. On the occasion, he also gave away welfare aids (wheelchair, tricycle, motorized sewing machine, hearing aids etc) worth Rs 9.5 crore to 7,219 beneficiaries (disabled people).
