Accessibility is not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of St Paul’s Catacombs in Rabat, but this week the site is opening its doors to students with multiple learning disabilities.

A multi-sensory interpretation exercise.

Students from the Helen Keller Resource Centre did not miss out yesterday on any part of the experience of a museum visit – from purchasing the ticket at the entry booth to an interactive re-enactment of a Roman burial.

Yesterday’s group was made up of seven students, and the visit will be repeated by other groups for seven consecutive days.

At the visitors’ centre they were wheeled on a glass walkway set up over part of the complex of interconnected catacombs that cannot be made wheelchair accessible.

The underground Roman cemeteries, which were in use up to the fourth century, are located on the outskirts of the old capital, Melite – today’s Mdina – since Roman law used to prohibit burials within the city.

The centre, inaugurated last year, already hosts a series of multi-sensory interpretation facilities, but the group of students with multiple learning disabilities have been preparing for their visit since October.

Rosario Mizzi from the Speech Language Department, who collaborated on the project with Heritage Malta, said the main aim behind the programme was to allow the students to go through the same experience as other museum visitors. This meant they also had to do their bit, because most of them had never visited a museum.

This is the first such outreach programme for students with different needs

They were, for example, briefed about the museum’s no food and noise policy and how to request a ticket – either aided by pressing a large button or by communicating with flashcards.

Vanessa Ciantar from Heritage Malta said this was the first such outreach programme for students with different needs.

She said that over recent months, students have also created props to use during a re-enactment of Roman mortuary rituals on site.

There they were introduced to essential oils, used as part of the embalming procedure during such rituals, while music from the era played in the background.