Tours for the Deaf
The Dinosaur Museum Altmühltal has further developed its tour offerings and has been providing tours for the deaf in sign language since July 2022:
Upon request, groups of up to 20 people can book 90-minute tours, which are led by professional deaf “signers.”
The museum creators were inspired by a shoot for the TV series “Sehen statt Hören” (Seeing Instead of Hearing) at the museum and in the Painten fossil quarry. The TV magazine, produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), is the only program on German television dedicated to the information needs and interests of sign language viewers. The program on dinosaur knowledge was broadcast on June 11, 2022, on BR Fernsehen and has since been available in the broadcaster’s media library.
“Already during filming, we decided that in the future, we want to bring the fascinating world of prehistory closer to hearing-impaired and deaf visitors,” says paleontologist and museum co-founder, Raimund Albersdörfer. “We quickly put the idea into action and can now offer tailored tours to this target group in just a few weeks.”
As an interesting “side effect” of the film shoot, the editorial team of the program, in collaboration with paleontologists, created sign names for prehistoric creatures such as the up to 27-meter-long giant dinosaur Diplodocus or the Iguanodon, the “cow of the dinosaur age.”
