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
"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
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
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
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
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.