Lecture
Visitors with special needs – Defining specifics of the group
Lecturer:
-Dr. Tomasz Michalik, Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw
Dr. Tomasz Michalik is an archaeologist and cognitive scientist. In his research and for his presentation, he decided to intertwine these two sciences and focused on cognitive challenges related to the human mind and ethical challenges to teach history in places of difficult heritage. His theoretical presentation was supported with examples of a research project he co-created (Heritage for All. A Contribution to the Inclusion of People with Intellectual Disabilities in Archaeology). He addressed three main issues, the first of which was defining and completing the notion of disability. The second part focused on the relationship between the past and the mind because the connection of the two spheres are the basis of history (understood as knowledge). As research shows, time is an abstract notion that can be difficult to grasp but seems to be essential to understand the heavy heritage of memorial sites. Finally, he presented a research project through which he experienced this difficult relation of the past and the mind with intellectually disabled people. For him, this project is a starting point to think about the way to communicate with people with disabilities in memorial sites.
It appears that the definition of the term disability or being disabled is unclear and blurred. “Physical disabilities form the largest group of disabilities, then it is followed by the cardiovascular disabilities and then neurological, hearing, vision and so on; mental disabilities are at the end. The group of people who have difficulties moving form the largest share.” But another disability should also be taken into account - subjective disability. “Not everybody feels well, not everybody feels up to perform everyday duties; therefore, they regard themselves as people with disabilities, which is not always respected by state institutions.” The definition and categories of disabilities are evolving. The most important scientific concept belonging to this phenomenon is social disability. In this approach the problem of disability lies not in the body but in the social and physical environment which contains various barriers. By better understanding these disabilities or these different ways of functioning and thinking, and the whole range of varieties it includes, we could better adapt to people’s needs and we could better communicate. “People with disabilities need to have access to all human rights and freedoms, which also covers the access to culture, including the difficult heritage related to extermination.”
Dr. Michalik quoted the philosopher Michel Foucault and the concept of Heterotopia he coined. It is a place which is outside the social order. “In the real world, we have marginalized people, people with disabilities. So we have to create places where such barriers can be overcome and in this way we can change the world order (in other words we should create heterotopias).” The project “Difficult Simple Words” set up by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum for people with special needs is a kind of heterotopia because it works with a specific pattern adapted to people with mental disabilities, aside from the normal social order, and invite them to learn in a different way accessible to them. But sometimes heterotopy is not enough. We need something more. “If we create educational projects, we have to change the way we think, the way we perceive the world. I thought that hetero-cognitive patterns could be thinking patterns that would distance us from certain customs and habits that we have. It is important to distance oneself in educational projects from the schematic and regular way of thinking about the past and about history.”
us to think. Anytime you talk about the past, it becomes a mental notion. It is something that in a way exists. […] As a cognitive scientist, it is important for me to think about the past in the context of the place it is