A Cottage guide and an ASL interpreter led the tour group on Saturday morning.
By Katie Needham
On Saturday, June 5, 2010, President Lincoln’s Cottage had visitors from all over the D.C. metropolitan area come to its first ever Deaf Appreciation Day. Throughout the day, visitors enjoyed guided tours of the Cottage which included American Sign Language (ASL) interpretation. These ASL tours were reserved exclusively for deaf and hearing-impaired visitors and began with the site’s newly closed captioned introductory film. All ASL interpretation was provided by Birnbaum Interpreting Services.
Children listen in the library of the Cottage.
Thanks to President Lincoln’s Cottage co-sponsor Birnbaum Interpreting Services and support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Deaf Appreciation Day allowed President Abraham Lincoln and his time at the Cottage to be brought to life through the use of American Sign Language.
Additional programming for deaf and hearing-impaired visitors at President Lincoln’s Cottage is being planned for the future. President Lincoln’s Cottage would like to extend a special thanks to BAE Systems for a generous donation, which will be used to make guided tours of the Cottage more accessible to deaf and hearing-impaired visitors.
For more information on President Lincoln’s Cottage, please visit www.lincolncottage.org.
Katie Needham is the Office Coordinator at President Lincoln’s Cottage.
Categories:Archive, Education, Public Programs
Tags:Abraham Lincoln, Deaf Appreciation Day, National Trust for Historic Preservation, National Trust Historic Sites, Washington D.C.
