An inclusive eco-excursion route created in the Khakassky Reserve
WWF-Russia supported the first in Altai-Sayan inclusive eco-excursion route for people with visual impairments created in the Republic of Khakassia in the Khakassky Nature Reserve. Eco trail is called “Short Journey of 400 million years long” and is located in Oglakhty cluster of the Reserve.
The members of regional representative office of the All-Russian Society of the Blind, the boarding school for children with visual impairments, and the Khakass Republican Special Library for the Blind joined the first excursion along the trail in November to test the route and especially designed objects.
For the trail, the craftsmen made and installed eight stands specifically designed for blind people with text in Braille. A three-dimensional 3D printings are the distinctive object of the trail that allow you not only see but also feel or "see with your hands" all images of the composition of the stands.
A bright tactile element of the inclusive trail is the sculpture of a giant centipede on a lepidodendron. It is made in full size and clearly shows what sizes arthropods reached in the Carboniferous period.
Totally, there are about 2,500 visually impaired people in the Republic of Khakassia. Often people with such limitations have to stay indoors, they may have less opportunities to communicate, and travelling outdoors clearly become a dream for a lot of them.
Thanks to small tactile objects that have natural size and imitate the original texture, information stands in Braille, accompanied by a specially trained expert, it will be easy and convenient for visitors with visual impairments to get acquainted with the grandiose history of the Earth, feel the fragility of the ecological balance and realize the importance of a responsible attitude to nature.
The inclusive ecotrail gives the chance for people with disabilities to brighten weekends. The people with visual impairments can visit this route for free.
Fossils of paleoflora and paleofauna were found on the territory of the Oglakhty site of the Khakassky Reserve. The paleontological excursion route allows you to make a short journey of 400 million years old to learn about the grandiose development of life on the planet, from the first cell to modern man, about how the Khakass-Minusinsk basin was formed, to touch the paleontological finds that allowed scientists to recreate pictures of the past.