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Egyptian Museum creates special tour for the blind
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The Egyptian Museum has created a special tour program for the blind. They can now finally enjoy the vast treasure trove of wonders from Ancient Egypt housed in the museum in central Cairo.
For the average visitor to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, a stroll through the museums halls offers an unparalleled journey into the visual splendor of Ancient Egypt.
It is a journey that has been, until recently, off limits to the sight-impaired or blind.
But a recent program offers tours for the blind or sight impaired by guides who are themselves similarly disabled. Now, for the first time, it gives them proper access to the greatest treasures from the times of the Pharaohs.
The Museum's Director says the tours, and museum classes on Ancient Egypt for blind children, are designed to cater to a neglected section of society.
Dr.Wafaa El-Seddiq, director general of Egyptian Museum, said, "The activity of the school in fact seeks to instruct blind tour guides so that they will be able to convey good information to blind children who visit the Egyptian Museum. We opened the Egyptian Museum to the blind to enable them to see their ancestors' great monuments."
The program began five years ago and now has four guides on staff who use Braille guides for their tour groups.
Blind tour guides are trained to convey important historical information about the antiquities they are describing. They're also given special permission to allow blind visitors to touch the exhibits in order to feel what they cannot see.
The Egyptian Museum in central Cairo has the world's largest collection of antiquities from the times of the Pharaohs, with 120,000 pieces on display or in storage.
The Museum's program for the blind is still growing, but even the modest effort so far is finally offering an opportunity for those who cannot see the wonders of Ancient Egypt, to experience them in an entirely new and different way.
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