“Forgotten Hollywood”- Visually Impaired Tactile Experience
Manny P. here…
The Penn Museum, an archaeology and anthropology center, proudly offers touch tours for the blind and the visually impaired. The institution, part of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, began offering the tours last year in an effort to make their extensive collections more accessible.
Most major US 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. Such accommodations began well before the Americans with Disabilities Act. Museums that don’t offer tactile tours often have personal or audio guides for the blind.
The free tours include a classroom lesson on how Egyptians prepared a body for burial. Students jiggle a gelatin mold of the brain — which is removed during the mummification process — and handle facsimiles of relics found in tombs. They also feel ancient linen, smell scented oils, and touch a reproduction of a mummy. Educators are already planning next season’s curriculum on ancient Rome.
The Penn Museum has held hands-on tours twice each Monday — when the building is otherwise closed — for the past two Fall seasons. Overall, it’s engaged nearly 250 blind or visually impaired people, up about 32 percent from last year.
I’m encouraged by this wonderfully sensible approach to education…
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My wife Laurie will be spending this Saturday at the Howe-Waffle House, located at 120 Civic Center Dr. in Santa Ana, CA. Laurie will carry personally autographed copies of Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History and Son of Forgotten Hollywood Forgotten History, unique literary gifts for family and friends. She also will be offering her quilted wares, handbags and blankets… Great shopping ideas in time for the Holidays! LAURIE PACHECO –>
Holiday Open House and Boutique
Howe-Waffle House and Medical Museum
Saturday, December 7th, from 11 am to 4 pm
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 4th, 2013 at 12:04 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
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