Phase One: What If You Can't Hear?

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The Children’s Museum in Oak Lawn wanted to establish an exhibit gallery to help visitors develop empathy and understanding for those who find different ways to hear, see, and walk. MindSplash met this need with Phase one of the “What If?” exhibit area, focused on hearing. CMOL and MindSplash collectively identified What If’s two key goals: give visitors an understanding of what it's like to be deaf or hard of hearing and allow visitors to explore how those who are deaf and hard of hearing can “hear” and communicate with others. 

 

MindSplash’s solution included a variety of interactive stations where visitors can practice signing, try to hear their partner talk, spin a sign language sentence, rub their name in sign language letters, learn about cochlear implants, play Dangerous Decibels games about protecting hearing, draw a sound and more.

 

MindSplash was also thrilled to partner with nationally known Two Little Hands Productions, originators of “Signing Time” videos for babies and older children, to produce “Time to Sign,” an interactive media kiosk with small segments of their videos that visitors can select to “sign along.”

 

Visitors of all ages and abilities have found What If? to be inspiring, informative, and, most of all, fun!