A group of students at The Washington State School for the Blind got to experience the circus like never before. The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus held a “Blind Touch Tour” at the Kent ShoWare Center today.
13 visually impaired students had the chance to touch a python and an elephant. The elephant was quite the surprise for some students.
“When you’re visually impaired, you sense stuff like shadows,” said Su Park. “For a second I was like this is a wall and then I realized there shouldn’t be a wall there. And then the wall ate the apple. I got the impression that the supposed wall was alive.”
The children touched the curtains, tried on costumes and gave the hoola hoop a whirl. Through it all, they used their fingertips, their ears and their noses to take in the circus. It was an afternoon that opened up a whole new world for the blind.
“The rest of the world can look at stuff on the internet, but it's not like we can go to a concert and be able to see everything,” said Park.
This was the first time the Ringling Brothers held a “Blind Touch Tour” for the school.
