Museum offers tours for the blind
Ayala, 16 and blind since birth, touched ancient Egyptian artifacts at the University of Pennsylvania archaeology museum as part of a special tour for the blind and visually impaired.
The museum began offering the tours in 2012 as part of an initiative to make their extensive collection more accessible.
Penn Museum
Angel Ayala, left, Tatyana Allen, center and Katie Maunder touch a page of reproduced hieroglyphics near a quartzite likeness of Ramesses II during a special tour at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, Nov. 25, 2013."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.
Penn Museum
Katie Maunder, left, reaches out to touch a replica of a mummy as blind high school student Angel Ayala, 16, center, visually impaired high school student Tatyana Allen, 16, right and blind high school student Cache Ballard, 16, participate in the classroom segment of a special tour at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, Nov. 25, 2013.Most
major U.S. metro areas have at least one museum that offers some type
of hands-on experience, from touching objects with bare hands or gloves
to feeling replicas, according to Art Beyond Sight, a group that makes
visual culture accessible to the blind and visually impaired.
Penn Museum
Docen Austin Seraphin, left, blind high school student Angel Ayala, center and blind high school student Cache Ballard, right, raise their arms as part of a lesson during a special tour for the blind and visually impaired at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, Nov. 25, 2013.The Penn Museum has held hands-on tours twice each Monday - when the building is otherwise closed - for the past two fall seasons.
Penn Museum
Angel Ayala touches a quartzite likeness of Ramesses II at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, Nov. 25, 2013.Students
sanitized their hands before feeling the pieces, which were
pre-selected by conservators. Though thousands of years old, the
artifacts shouldn't be damaged by clean fingers and a light touch, according to museum program coordinator Trish Maunder.
Penn Museum
Blind and visually impaired visitors touch a quartzite likeness of Ramesses II at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia, Nov. 25, 2013.Overall, the museum
is engaging with nearly 250 blind or visually impaired people this
fall, up about 32 percent from last year, Maunder said. Educators are
already planning next season's curriculum on ancient Rome.