Friday, January 03, 2014

Pa. Museum Tells Blind Visitors: Please Touch!

ABC News
By Kathy Matheson, December 3, 2013

...Penn Museum [is] an archaeology and anthropology center that offers touch tours for the blind and visually impaired. Ayala can now feel the eroded limestone of an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus and the intricate hieroglyphs on the statue of a pharaoh.

"When I touch things, it's my version of a sighted person's eyes. It tells me way more than a person describing it would ever," Ayala said.

The institution, which is part of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, began offering the tours last year in an effort to make their extensive collections more accessible. Museums should serve the community at large, and that includes the unsighted as well as the sighted, said program coordinator Trish Maunder.

More here

No comments: