Study Buddy (Challenger): Hong Kong improves museum tours for the disabled

[2] In Hong Kong, museums and public galleries are constantly designing new interactive ways – multilingual tours and multimedia experiences – for the public to engage with and understand objects on show. But too often, tours aimed at the disabled community are limited to solving mobility issues, such as providing barrier-free access to exhibition halls.

[3] Things are beginning to change. In 2023, the Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (Chat) began devising more comprehensive accessibility tours aimed at and created in partnership with hearing-impaired people. “Accessibility services in other museums and art galleries [often] consider disabled folks as [only] service recipients,” said Eugenia Law Pik-yu, Chat’s associate curator of learning and community. “We wanted to explore a way to include them as recipients and co-creators.”

[4] In the spring of 2024, Chat launched Hong Kong’s first training course for hearing and hearing-impaired guides. They are paired with one another to lead multisensory tours that cater to both hearing and hearing-impaired people. The free tours began in September 2024. “We realised Hong Kong Sign Language is a very interesting and visually oriented language and tool,” Law said. “There are a lot of textile machines in our permanent exhibition, whose techniques [can be] complicated for the audience to grasp. Whether you are deaf, hearing-impaired or hearing, a little bit of HKSL [can help] you understand certain abstract ideas more clearly.”

[5] Visitors are invited to touch and feel objects on show to learn about Hong Kong’s once-blooming textile industry and the museum that honours it. The accessibility tours also allow hearing people to interact with those who are deaf or have partial hearing – a rare occurrence for most Hongkongers. According to the city’s Census and Statistics Department, there were roughly 246,000 people with hearing difficulties in Hong Kong in 2020. As of July 2024, there are only 57 official sign language interpreters, a number that has only increased by seven since 2018.

[6] Raymond Wong Cheuk-hon, general manager of the non-profit organisation SLCO Community Resources, said Chat’s tours help the public understand HKSL and the hearing-impaired community better. SLCO stands for “sign bilingualism and co-enrolment”, and the organisation encourages “deaf-hearing inclusiveness”. “Bilingual” refers to how deaf students are encouraged to be fluent in both HKSL and the written and spoken languages of the hearing community.

[7] The organisation helped promote the Chat programme alongside the Centre for Sign Linguistics and Deaf Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and designed the 45-minute tours led by hearing and hearing-impaired guides. The tours take place twice every Sunday until February 23 and may be extended if there is demand.

Source: South China Morning Post, January 21

1. How does the lack of accessibility affect Stella Lee’s museum experiences, according to paragraph 1?

2. In paragraph 2, the main critique of the city’s current efforts to make museums accessible to the disabled community is that they …
A. are often developed without input from the disabled community.
B. focus solely on physical accessibility.
C. only include people with intellectual disabilities.
D. all of the above

3. The phrase “Things are beginning to change” in paragraph 3 suggests …
A. museums in Hong Kong are now accessible to individuals with different disabilities.
B. all Hong Kong museums have significantly improved accessibility.
C. there is a growing awareness of the need for greater inclusivity in museums.
D. the Hong Kong government is no longer prioritising accessibility in cultural institutions.

4. Based on your understanding of paragraph 3, what is different about Chat’s approach to accessibility from other museums’ efforts?

5. Find a word in paragraph 4 that refers to “a concept not easily visualised”.

6. Why did Chat incorporate Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) into its tours, according to paragraph 4?

7. Based on your understanding of paragraph 5, what does the number of official sign language interpreters tell us about the situation for deaf people in Hong Kong?

8. What does the “rare occurrence” in paragraph 5 refer to?

9. According to Raymond Wong Cheuk-hon in paragraph 6, the primary goal of SLCO Community Resources is to …
A. increase funding for sign language interpreters.
B. promote the use of HKSL among the general public.
C. improve the quality of sign language education in Hong Kong.
D. promote understanding and inclusivity between hearing and deaf communities.

1. She cannot hear anything and cannot fully understand the information presented, leading her to leave after a while. (accept all similar answers)
2. B
3. C
4. Chat develops accessible tours using input from the disabled community. (accept all similar answers)
5. abstract
6. HKSL is a very interesting and visually oriented language. It can help deaf, hearing-impaired and hearing visitors better understand the techniques displayed in the museum’s exhibits. (accept all similar answers)
7. There are many people in Hong Kong who have hearing difficulties, but very few people can interpret for them. This means there may be significant communication barriers and less accessibility for deaf people in Hong Kong. (accept all reasonable answers)
8. the opportunity for hearing people in Hong Kong to interact with those who are deaf or have partial hearing
9. D