I could honestly take one long blog post to write about the USHMM but I have too many subtopics of my visit I want to cover so I'd rather just break it up and go piece by piece. In this third segment I'm going to talk about my actual tour experience.
I had done the research on planning the visit as soon as my mom gave the OK for us to go. I was looking at booking tickets, because from March to August you need timed tickets to do the permanent exhibition because of the volume of people who come, when I came across what they called the Guided Highlights Tour.
According to the museum's website, the tour is for blind and visitors of low vision (i.e. between 20/60 and 20/200 which is blindness) and their families or friends. The tour usually only is available for groups of four or less but apparently they can accommodate larger groups if planned in advance. The tour uses visual aids adapted to the needs of the tour goer. In my case Mrs. Sara, my guide, had black and white prints of the big murals we saw so I could see them more in detail. She also used a flashlight to light up the pictures or artifacts as most of the exhibit is dimly lit. We also used touchable reconstructions of things like a milk bottle that was excavated or a model of the museum.
Another great thing about this if you have low vision like me is that your tour guide will literally guide you if you need. For a good majority of the tour, Mrs. Sara held my left hand and made sure we got as close to the front to see as we could which was nice. It was also a good thing because like I mentioned most of the exhibit is lit dimly so I never got lost. It was actually kinda funny because Mrs. Sara was about a head shorter than me!
In between the floors of the exhibit there are rooms for you to rest your feet and just take a break because it is A LOT of walking and/or standing and looking at things. The rest stops on each floor are a great idea not only for that but also because some people get really sensitive to certain things they see and they might need time to process it.
Another good thing is the tour takes its time. Usually with timed passes you only get an hour and a half to go through all three floors and that seems kind of rushed to me. My mom and I were at the museum for four hours, three of which the tour covered. In truth, they probably ought to call the tour the Guided In Depth Tour, because we hit everything, not just highlights.
I have never in my life felt so appreciated because of my low visual perception skills, but USHMM sure made me feel that way.
No comments:
Post a Comment