Please Touch the Museum Pieces

People visit museums to learn about history, arts or science, Some people love museums while some others don’t enjoy them at all. Angel Ayala has been blind since birth. He has never been a fan of museum exhibits. The high school student says he can’t really enjoy them as he can’t see them. But he likes one museum. It’s the Penn Museum, which is an archaeology and anthropology center. It offers “touch tours” for people who are blind or visually impaired. Angel can feel the limestone of an ancient Egyptian artifact. He can touch a statue of a king. “When I touch things, it’s my way of seeing. It tells me way more than a person describing it ever would,” Angel said. The Penn Museum began offering hands-on tours in the 2012 fall season. The Penn Museum has held hands-on tours twice each Monday. The museum is trying to make its collections available to everyone in the city. That includes blind or visually impaired people, too. “Just because a person has low vision or can’t see doesn’t mean that they’re not completely interested in culture or learning about ancient artifacts,” Maunder, the program coordinator said. Art Beyond Sight is a New York-based art group. It helps people who are blind or visually impaired enjoy things that are usually only for people who can see. The group says that most large U.S. cities have a museum that offers a hands- on experience. Some museums let visitors touch objects with bare hands or gloves. Others allow visitors to touch copies of things. Some museums have personal or audio guides for people who are blind. The group believes that hands-on tours will help many visitors. This includes children with learning disabilities, too. Before tours at the Penn Museum, visitors wash their hands. Then, they can feel ancient linen, smell scented oils, and touch a copy of a mummy. The artifacts are thousands of years old. “Everyone seems really happy,” Austin Seraphin said. “Many visitors like the tour but they have one complaint. They want the tour to be longer” he says.