Hard of hearing visitors can use a revolutionary new hand-held video guide at the Mary Rose Museum.
The guides use touch-screen technology. Users press the number which corresponds with the display they are looking at in the museum and a ‘Sign Language Interpreter’ appears on the screen to explain the exhibits.
Sixteen displays are featured including the hull of the ship.
The first couple to use this brand new device rated it highly: “Absolutely wonderful & interesting… highly recommended for British Sign Language users” Gillian and Mervyn Brewer of Worcester.
There are 12 of these devices in total available free of charge in the Mary Rose Museum.
Mary Kinoulty, Head of Learning explains: “The Mary Rose Trust is committed to making the collection as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. These hand-held signing guides are a brilliant new way of communicating with our hearing-impaired visitors. “
The hand-held video guides are supplied by a local company, ATS Heritage. Hampshire-based ATS has installed similar devices in castles and heritage sites all over the UK and also specialise in the production of audio guides.
These video guides have been introduced in addition to the accessibility features already in place at the Mary Rose including hearing loops, wheelchair and pushchair access, audio guides and a number of tactile exhibits for visually impaired visitors.
