Picture © ATS Heritage
A revolutionary new hand-held video guide to the Mary Rose Museum at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard is a hit with hard of hearing visitors.
The guides utilise touch-screen technology so that users can navigate their way around the Museum to learn about different displays, including the hull of the Mary Rose ship.
Press the number on your guide to correspond with the one on the display you are looking at in the museum and a 'Sign Language Interpreter' appears on screen to explain the exhibits. Picture © ATS Heritage
The 12 devices are available to use free of charge in the Mary Rose Museum.
Mary Kinoulty, Head of Learning, sees these hand-held signing guides as part of The Mary Rose Trust’s commitment to making the collection as accessible as possible, describing them as "a brilliant new way of communicating."
There are similar devices in castles and heritage sites across the UK.
Other accessibility features at the Mary Rose Museum include hearing loops, wheelchair and pushchair access, audio guides and some tactile exhibits for visually-impaired visitors.
