First exhibition in Flemish Sign Language with the ErfgoedApp

Deaf Flanders, Erfgoedhuis Zusters van Liefde and FARO launch the exhibition'About Sisters and Deaf Girls' in the first deaf school in Flanders. The guided tour with the ErfgoedApp is available in Flemish Sign Language (VGT) and in Dutch. The exhibition can be visited in the coming months by appointment at the Erfgoedhuis | Sisters of Charity JM in Ghent. The initiative was launched during World Deaf Day and the International Week of the Deaf.

About sisters and deaf girls

Joseph Petrus Triest lived most of his life on the very spot where the Sisters of Charity live today. It was here in 1820 that the first school for the deaf in Flanders was founded by the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary. A few years earlier, these religious women had taken up residence in the Terhagen Convent in Molenaarstraat in Ghent. In order to get the school off to a good start, the young candidate Sister Theresia Verhulst went especially to Paris to learn the sign language method from the priest Abbé de l'Epée in the Institut National pour Sourds-Muets. After her return she became the first director of the school until her death in 1854. During a tour with the ErfgoedApp you will be shown information in Flemish Sign Language (VGT) and Dutch on your smartphone or tablet, as well as a lot of extra information such as photos and videos about the objects on display.

Commit to Sign Language

Deaf Flanders and FARO hope that this first example will soon be followed up. With the ErfgoedApp , museums and heritage organisations have the technology to make information accessible to a broad target group. We therefore expect that many museums and heritage organisations will use this first example to offer a tour in Flemish Sign Language (VGT) themselves.