The Dinosaur Museum Altmühltal has further developed its range of guided tours and has also been offering guided tours for the deaf in sign language since July 2022:

On request, groups of up to 20 people can book 90-minute tours led by professional deaf “signers”.

The museum makers were inspired by a filming of the series “Seeing instead of hearing” in the museum and the fossil quarry in Painten. 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 BR television on 11 June 2022 and has been available in the broadcaster’s media library ever since.

“During filming, we decided that we wanted to bring the fascinating world of prehistoric times closer to hearing-impaired and deaf visitors in future,” says palaeontologist and co-founder of the museum, Raimund Albersdörfer. “We quickly put the idea into action and in just a few weeks we will be able to offer this target group tailor-made guided tours.”

As an interesting “side effect” of the film shoot, the show’s editorial team worked with paleontologists to create sign names for prehistoric creatures such as the up to 27-metre-long giant dinosaur Diplodocus or the Iguanodon, the “cow of the dinosaur age”.