EGYPT: Museum trains blind tour guides

[Mark Norton]

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, based on my own visit there is a real 
study in contrasts.  The place is literally crammed with artifacts.  In 
some galleries, there isn't enough room for visitors.  Display cases are 
very crowed and filled with often very small objects.  These objects are 
often poorly labeled, if labeled at all.  While they may be making an 
effort to accommodate the blind, the museum isn't mobility accessible.  
The place is also a veritable maze of rooms, corridors, vaults, 
galleries, nooks, and crannies.  However, this is true of many museums.

All that said, this collection is truly outstanding.  The quality of the 
art and artifacts is breathtaking.  Brigid and I spend two whole days 
there during our tour of Egypt:  once with the tour and once purely on 
our own.  In spite of it's problems, I would rate it in the top 10 
museums of the world - at least in terms of the art it contains.

- Mark Norton

E.J. Zufelt wrote:
> Not sure of the original source:
>
>> EGYPT: Museum trains blind tour guides
>>
>> For the average visitor to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, a stroll through
>> the museums halls, crowded with ancient statues, papyrus, mummies, and
>> gilded relics, offers an unparalleled journey into the visual 
>> splendour of
>> Ancient Egypt.
>>
>> It is a journey that has been, until recently, off limits to the
>> sight-impaired or blind.
>> But a recent program offering guided tours for the blind or sight 
>> impaired
>> by tour guides who are similarly handicapped is now, for the first time,
>> giving 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.
>>
>> "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," says Dr. Wafaa
>> El-Seddiq.
>>
>> The tours and the museum's school for the blind are the brainchild of Dr.
>> El-Seddiq, who said that the idea came to her when she was doing her PhD
>> studies in Germany and noticed the extraordinary lengths German 
>> museums go
>> to to cater to the blind - from sound effects, to Braille markings and
>> guides.
>>
>> That inspired her to work to create a similar program for the blind
>> population of Egypt, variously estimated at between tens to hundreds of
>> thousands, so they could have access to their own rich heritage.
>>
>> The program began five years ago and now offers weekly classes for 
>> children
>> and has four guides on staff who use Braille guides for their tour 
>> groups.
>>
>> Blind tour guides are trained not only to convey important historical
>> information about the antiquities they are describing, but are also given
>> special permission to allow blind visitors to touch the exhibits in 
>> order to
>> feel what they cannot see.
>>
>> Normally touching ancient relics is strictly forbidden as it causes 
>> damage
>> to them.
>>
>> 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 prize exhibit are the over 3,000 pieces on display from King
>> Tutankhamen's tomb, including the boy-Pharaoh's famous golden mask.
>>
>> Trainee guide Adel Naguib says that it is easier for a blind guide to
>> communicate to someone who experiences the world in the same way.
>>
>> "Most of the tour guides that describe the antiquities here generally 
>> repeat
>> information and don't offer anything new. So what do we want to do? 
>> We want
>> to describe the antiquities from the perspective of the blind 
>> themselves, in
>> the way they see the antiquities," he says.
>>
>> Nagwa Abdul Maqsoud, who is a qualified guide, says she feels she is 
>> doing
>> important work.
>> "We honestly feel as if we have arrived, that I have become a tour 
>> guide in
>> the Egyptian Museum, a tour guide for the blind. The Egyptian Museum is
>> something very important. Bring me a sighted guide and compare them to a
>> blind tour guide, the blind tour guide will go into the details of the
>> antiquities more than the other guide. The sighted guide usually just
>> conveys information. We give you the information and give you details 
>> of the
>> statue itself," she said.
>>
>> Egypt is currently trying to retrieve famous Egyptian relics that 
>> were taken
>> abroad, like the bust of Nefertiti in Berlin and the Rosetta Stone in
>> London, and trainee Ahmed Mohamed says he hopes they come back to 
>> Egypt so
>> he can experience them up close, since he cannot see images of them.
>>
>> "Of course, of course, I hope that all the stolen monuments abroad are
>> returned to Egypt, so that I can see things I've seen before, and I hope
>> that the Rosetta stone, which is in the British Museum, is returned," he
>> said.
>>
>> 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 in an entirely new and 
>> different
>> way. 
>
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