Guided tour

For visitors who wish to be navigated around the space, please click on the video below for the Museum entrance guided tour.

For screen reader users to follow is the wall panel text and audio descriptions for the 3D models or you can download the text as a Microsoft Word document.

Welcome

Welcome to National Paralympic Heritage Trust’s Global Virtual Museum, a place where you can explore the history of the Paralympic Games from its birthplace in Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, UK and interact with inspirational Paralympic stories from around the world.

As you enter the museum you can choose to visit different galleries celebrating the development of the Games; from the important contributions of international partners and their pioneers to the vital role of the UK’s national disability sports organisations in developing Paralympic sports and athletes from grassroots to elite level. There are also community galleries linked to regional museums which celebrate local Paralympic stories, uncover interesting artefacts and wider disability history with reflections from disabled young people.
 
Each gallery could have easily doubled in size to share so many amazing stories! We have chosen some core set of stories to focus on, but additional information is available on our website with links to all our partners. 
 
Enjoy your visit, feedback, share your stories and encourage friends and family to get involved to help it grow. Thank you!

Creating the museum

Creating the museum has been an amazing journey for all of the team and partners involved. We have tried to ensure that its creation is in the voice of those with lived experience of disability whether it is creating 3D images, audio description, curation or oral history. 

The development of the Museum has been part of an evolving transformation in the operating practices of the National Paralympic Heritage Trust, in its ambition to become seamlessly inclusive. 
 

Collaboration

Each gallery has been developed in collaboration with sporting organisations and heritage partners utilising valuable academic research. Over time we want the museum to grow to reflect many more Paralympic stories, collaborating and bringing together the amazing work of other nations in recording their Paralympic Heritage to share, learn and celebrate the history of the global Paralympic Movement. 

Importantly the museum has been researched and co-created with people who have lived experience of disability and many with Paralympic or disability sport backgrounds themselves. The research and design team at NPHT has heavily involved those in our traineeships and work placement schemes which are designed to open opportunities for disabled people to work in the heritage sector and learn new skills including curation, 3D scanning and oral history. 

Guttmann Gallery

Professor Sir Ludwig Guttmann is the father of the Paralympic Movement. Dr Guttmann arrived in Britain in 1939, a Jewish German refugee with his young family and by 1944 had established the first specialist spinal injuries unit in the world. In 1948 he hosted the first wheelchair sports competition, on the same day as the Olympics started in London, raising awareness and beginning his fight for equality and inclusion. As the founder of the Paralympic Games and its global development he sits at the heart of this virtual museum.

Accessibility

We use the social model of disability throughout our museum. In the social model it is correct to use the term disabled people not people with a disability, because it is society that places limits on a person. Our partner schools are all schools which support special educational needs, and we refer to the students as disabled young people.

Considerable work has gone in to making the Global Virtual Museum accessible and we have incorporated a guided tour for those visitors who wish to be navigated around the virtual space. However, there are limitations on these virtual platforms, and we continue to strive to overcome these.  Additional materials such as screen readable scripts and supplementary learning resources can be found on our website. Please do get in touch with any feedback. 
 

Museum funders

We would like to thank the following organisations for their generous contribution to the development of this museum:

• Arts Council England
• Wolfson Foundation
• National Lottery Heritage Fund
• Rothschild Foundation
• Mitsubishi Corporation London Branch 
• Heart of Bucks

Thank you

Thank you to all those who have contributed to the virtual museum including our volunteers and trustees.

Partners

• SEND schools and Museums 
• Royal Holloway University, Westminster University, Coventry University and Loughborough University
• Cotswold Archaeology 
• Venue View

To Getty Images for their support.