blind and deaf museum

During one of our classes we brought up the question- if you had to choose between losing one of your senses, which would it be?

This past week, I was in Israel. My family visited many museums while we were there and two of them that I found particularly interesting were the deaf museum and the blind museum. I have actually been to the blind museum twice before and the deaf museum once before, but I have never gone to them back to back, until last week.

A little background for those who have never heard of these museums-

Deaf museum- you go in with a group of about ten people and you put on noise canceling headphones. You are not allowed to talk, to increase the feeling of being deaf. The museum is split into a few rooms, each with its own display and activity. For example, one room teaches you how to use facial expression to express emotions, instead of using your words, and another room teaches you how to use your hands to express something.

Blind Museum- a group of 10 people are guided by a blind guide. In this museum, you enter into complete darkness. This museum is also split into different rooms, such as a grocery store and a playground.

At the end of the tour you can buy drinks or food without talking, or without seeing.

Both of these museums are really cool in understanding how blind/deaf people live. The guides learned how to cope with their situations.

When in the deaf museum, I had to learn to express myself with my hands and facial expressions, which at first seemed really hard to do, but then got easier as I got used to the fact that I couldn’t hear and nobody could hear me. I had to use my sight if I wanted to see what was going around me.

In the blind museum, I couldn’t see anything. I had to use my sense of touch to feel where I was going and to feel all the objects in each room. I also had to use my hearing to hear where the guide was and to keep up with the group.

Each museum tour was about an hour and a half long. When I came out of the museums I was grateful for my ability to hear and see. However, I understood that losing one of those senses is bearable, not ideal, but bearable. If you lose one sense, it just increases all of your other senses. Going to the museums back to back was very cool in seeing the difference in both situations and learning how to react to both.

Overall it was a great experience and very relevant to what we were learning in class!