Dr. Andreas Heinecke

The social exclusion of disabled people and the opportunity-inequality for education, career, transportation, and leisure facilities they face are a major challenge around the world. 610 million people worldwide are registered as disabled - the millions unregistered left unmentioned. Two thirds of them live in developing countries. The interaction between abled and disabled people is often hindered by stereotypes, fears, avoidance and prejudices. The levels of understanding, support and access to education and jobs vary from country to country.

Even in developed countries like Germany, only about 15% have a job. The prevailing opinion that disability is worth less than normal leads to discrimination and marginalization of the blind and disabled worldwide. The interaction with blind and other marginalized people is still dominated by pity and welfare, and is focused mainly on the deficits of being disabled. There is a lack of understanding in the potential that might arise out of a handicap as well as the fact that disabled suffer much more from the ignorance, information deficit, unequal rights and uncertainty of the abled than from the disability itself.

Andreas Heinecke based the Dialogue in the Dark concept on the idea that experiencing extraordinary and powerful emotions that are mentally challenging does not just have a long lasting effect on people, but also improves the quality of their human interactions.

Dialogue in the Dark exhibitions take as their starting point the non-visual perception of blind people, in order to discover the unseen within and all around us. Dialogue in the Dark certainly is not an ordinary exhibition. Rather, it is a platform for communication and a close exchange between different cultures, provoking a change in perspectives.

In Dialogue in the Dark visitors are led by blind guides in small groups through totally darkened rooms where sounds, wind, temperatures and textures convey the characteristics of daily environments such as a park, a city or a bar. In the dark, daily routines turn into new experiences. The effect is a role-reversal: sighted people are torn out of their familiar environments, losing the sense they rely on most: their sight. Blind people guide them; provide them with security and a sense of orientation, transmitting a world without pictures. The blind and partially sighted guides open the visitors' eyes in the dark to show them that their world is not poorer - just different.

By entering worlds without sight or sound, we learn new abilities from those whom we perceive to be disabled. As we shift into an ever more globalized community, a visit into a world we thought was limiting actually helps us to break free of our own limitations.

This encounter helps us appreciate the virtues, values, skills and perception of those different from us. It fosters better inter-human communication and increases awareness of human diversity.

For more information please visit www.dialogue-in-the-dark.com.