This series of tour videos make the Lippitt House Museum accessible to ASL speakers. Presented by native ASL speakers, the tour offers the same quality and complexity as the museum’s traditional docent-led tours. Each room (as identified in the floor plan) features several videos highlighting different aspects of the room, along with stories about the family and servants who lived and worked in the house. The videos are accessed on museum tablets or on visitors’ cell phones with the option to select videos for each room, based on individual’s interests. 

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The ASL video tour draws inspiration from Jeanie Lippitt who became deaf following scarlet fever at age four. Jeanie and her mother Mary Ann Balch Lippitt were instrumental in establishing the Rhode Island School for the Deaf. 

 

The project was funded by a grant from the Paul V. Sherlock Center for Disabilities at Rhode Island College.