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博物馆里常见的规矩是“请勿触摸”。美国盲人印刷馆（APH）在肯塔基州路易斯维尔新建的博物馆 The Dot Experience 将于 10 月 30 日开馆，它的做法恰恰相反：邀请参观者用手触摸、用耳朵聆听、按自己的方式探索展品，让看不见的人也能独立参观。文章先介绍博物馆与盲文的渊源，再说明许多残障人士为何难以独自享受博物馆，随后讲述盲人、聋人、轮椅使用者等测试者的反馈如何改变设计——一只导盲犬拒绝跨过地面引导条带，写实雕塑摸起来反而不如简化版本好懂——最后介绍可触摸的雕像、复制品和手杖体验区，以及组织者希望传达的理念。阅读时可留意 so、also、when 等词如何把问题、应对和结果串联起来。

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Most museums have a simple rule: look, but do not touch. A new museum in Louisville, Kentucky, plans to do the opposite. The Dot Experience, which opens on October 30, asks visitors to touch its exhibits and explore them in their own way. Its goal is to welcome everyone, including people who cannot see the displays.

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大多数博物馆都有一条简单的规矩：只看，不摸。而美国肯塔基州路易斯维尔的一座新博物馆却打算反其道而行之。将于 10 月 30 日开馆的 The Dot Experience 请参观者触摸展品，并用自己的方式去探索。它的目标是欢迎所有人，包括看不见展品的人。

The museum belongs to the American Printing House for the Blind, or APH, an organisation that has made learning materials for blind and low-vision people since 1858. Its name comes from braille, the reading system in which letters, numbers and music are built from combinations of six raised dots. The new building covers 28,000 square feet. It also forms the front door to the APH campus, where a working factory still makes braille books.

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这座博物馆隶属于美国盲人印刷馆（APH）。自 1858 年以来，该机构一直为盲人和低视力人群制作学习材料。博物馆的名字来自盲文——一种由六个凸点组合出字母、数字和乐谱的阅读系统。新建筑占地 2.8 万平方英尺，同时也是 APH 园区的正门，园区内一座仍在运转的工厂至今还在制作盲文书。

For many disabled people, a museum visit is hard to enjoy alone. Lisa Echsner, a senior director at APH, told Spectrum News that many of them have never explored a museum on their own. They have needed a friend, a parent or a special tour. Danielle Burton, who is blind and has hearing loss, said audio tours only “sometimes” work for her, because headphones and hearing aids do not always help.

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对许多残障人士来说，独自参观博物馆很难获得乐趣。APH 高级主管 Lisa Echsner 曾对 Spectrum News 表示，他们中的许多人从未独自逛过博物馆，总是需要朋友、父母陪同，或者参加专门安排的导览。失明并有听力损失的 Danielle Burton 说，语音导览对她来说只是“有时”管用，因为耳机和助听器并不总能帮上忙。

To solve this, APH asked people with different disabilities to test the exhibits before opening. The team included blind and deaf people, wheelchair users and neurodivergent people. Their feedback changed the design. During testing, one tester’s guide dog refused to cross the floor strips meant to help visitors find their way, so the team rethought where the strips should go. Designers also found that highly realistic sculptures could be harder to understand by touch than simpler ones.

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为了解决这个问题，APH 请不同类型的残障人士在开馆前测试展品。测试团队包括盲人和聋人、轮椅使用者以及神经多样性人士。他们的反馈改变了设计。测试期间，一位测试者的导盲犬拒绝跨过原本用来帮助参观者辨认路线的地面条带，于是团队重新考虑了这些条带的位置。设计人员还发现，高度写实的雕塑用手摸起来，可能反而比简化的雕塑更难理解。

The finished museum offers braille, sign language, sound, lighting and textured floors. Visitors can feel life-size statues of Helen Keller and Buddy, the first Seeing Eye dog, and find a piano that Stevie Wonder played as a child. When an object must stay behind glass, a copy that can be touched is provided. At one display, visitors can walk with a cane across different floor surfaces to feel how blind people use them to find their way.

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建成后的博物馆提供盲文、手语、声音、灯光和带纹理的地面。参观者可以触摸海伦·凯勒和第一只 Seeing Eye 导盲犬 Buddy 的等身雕像，还能找到史蒂夫·汪达童年时弹过的一架钢琴。如果某件文物必须放在玻璃后面保存，馆方会提供一件可以触摸的复制品。在一处展区，参观者可以拿着手杖走过不同材质的地面，体会盲人如何借助这些地面辨认方向。

The organisers say the museum is not only for disabled visitors. Sandra Williams, who helped test it, said many people who can see never learn with their hands, “but you get a whole different perspective through your fingertips.” She hopes visitors will discover that people with and without disabilities are “so much more alike than we are different.”

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组织者表示，这座博物馆不只是为残障参观者准备的。参与测试的 Sandra Williams 说，许多看得见的人从不用手去认识事物，“但通过指尖，你会获得完全不同的视角”。她希望参观者会发现，无论有没有残障，人们之间“相同之处远多于不同之处”。

新闻来源

• Food Drink Life · This New 28,000-Square-Foot Louisville Museum Asks Visitors to Touch the Exhibits (27 Oct 2026)
• The Dot Experience · Accessibility at The Dot Experience
• The Dot Experience · A Tactile-First Approach at The Dot Experience (29 Jul 2026)
• Spectrum News 1 · Louisville museum encourages visitors to touch accessibility-focused exhibits (25 Sep 2026)
• Spectrum News 1 · From barriers to belonging: First-of-a-kind accessible museum takes shape (18 Dec 2025)
• WLKY · The Dot Experience brings a new kind of museum to Louisville (25 Sep 2026)

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