Day in silence

An interactive museum has opened in Moscow - a trip to the country of the deaf

In recent years, Russia began to talk more about the problems of people with disabilities - this is good. They say little and still not about everyone-this is bad, but there are also joyful news.

In September, the social project “In Silence” opened in Moscow - a place where visitors in the form of a quest explain how deaf and hearing -impaired people live and feel the world.

We often meet them in transport, cafes and on the streets - the deaf are easy to notice in the crowd through active gestures, but we know almost nothing about this world - we are shared by a whole abyss.

How deaf find out about the arrival of guests or what does the child cry in the next room? How do music and other sounds feel? To answer these questions, and was created "in silence."

“In silence” is an interactive space in which guests temporarily will have to abandon sounds and oral speech.

Visitors are given noise -disposable headphones, ask to turn off the sound of phones and warn that they are allowed to communicate with each other only with gestures. In the process of excursions, guests are taught simple words and expressions in the brutal language and give several tasks - at first they seem simple, but, having lost their voice and hearing, we become helpless and feel like foreigners that no one understands.

As the founder “in silence”, Maria Azina admits, the idea was given to her by past experience in the museum telling schoolchildren about the laws of physics. When a group of deaf children was supposed to come to them, this excited everyone - from guides to the administrator: how to communicate and talk about exhibits without knowing the language? It was then that it became clear that we needed a museum that would unite both worlds.

All guides in the museum are deaf or hard of hearing.

Dana is 25 years old, she began to lose his ears at nine months, but thanks to her mother’s efforts, she reads perfectly on her lips and says perfectly. For her, as well as for other employees, this is not only a chance to talk with the hearing “on equal terms”, but also to get a job in a country where there is an extremely limited choice of professions for the deaf. Most often, this is work at industries, at the cash desks of supermarkets or in a taxi, where there are few opportunities for creative implementation or career growth.

“In silence” is not the ultimate goal of the project. The organizers plan to hold a thematic party in honor of Halloween at the end of October, and in the future open the Russian brutal language courses for everyone.

And how else to explain to us, people from the world of sounds, that the deaf are not terrible? They read the same books, sit on the Internet, study, dye their hair, love delicious food and do not mind chatting.