16. Visitors of Deaf Museums

The number of visitors is as important for Deaf Museums, as it is for mainstream Museums. Even if access is free, the number of visitors can be used to show funding organisations that the Deaf Museum deserves its funding.

In our survey of Deaf Museums, we asked our contact persons who their target audience is and how many people actually visit their Museum each year. Most Deaf Museums see both Deaf and hearing people, including the general public, as target groups but the number of visitors and the strategies to attract visitors are limited. To attract more visitors, at least one Deaf Museum considers changing its story. 

Market Research

Most Deaf Museums are run by volunteers, with (very) limited funding. They do not have the resources for market or visitor research.  

Deaf visitors

The primary target group for most Deaf Museums are Deaf people in their region or country. Some also want to be relevant and interesting to hearing people. Not only people with some link to the Deaf community such as families of deaf children, teachers in deaf education, sign language students, but also the general public.

Hearing visitors

The Deaf Museums involve hearing visitors in different ways (see our Survey of Deaf Museums). All Deaf Museums of course welcome hearing visitors, but in  most cases these visitors have some link to the Deaf community. They are sign language interpreters, sign language students, or friends or family members of Deaf people.  
In the survey, The Norsk Døvemuseum writes that they were at that time (May 2022) discussing who their main target group is and how this will affect the story of the Museum: " We have a debate among our employees these days; is this a museum for the deaf community, or for the hearing to learn about the deaf community? We think this is difficult and have not come to a conclusion yet."

Or maybe a Deaf Museum can be of interest to both Deaf and hearing visitors? 

"Peruzzi described the museum (the National Deaf Life Museum at Gallaudet University) as serving “a dual role” for those visitors. “For members of the Deaf community, it is a place to see themselves, learn about their history, and develop their sense of personal identity, For hearing visitors, it offers a chance to learn about our culture, examine their own expectations and experiences of Deaf people, and feel the vibrancy of our signing community.”

In: The Washington Post, August 6, 2022

Children, young people

Most Deaf Museums consider Deaf children and young people as important target groups of their Museum. Children and young people must learn about the Deaf Community and its history. Most Deaf Museums however do not have the resources to organise special activities for Deaf children and young people.

The Norwegian Deaf Museum in Trondheim is an exception. They offer organised tours for different age groups.

For primary schools:  Sign Language School

Visitors from other countries

Most Deaf Museums do not see foreign visitors as a target group. Their websites are in the national language and/or sign language only. Information at the Museum is in the national written and sign language. As far as we know, none have guides who sign International Sign or a foreign sign language. 

Number of visitors

The number of visitors to most Deaf Museums is small. Some are only open on one or two days a week, some only by appointment. 

The target group of a Deaf Museum, deaf or hearing, local or national, is important because the story that the Museum tells (see Chapter 2), the selection of exhibits to display and the design of the exhibition, must all take the needs and preferences of the target audience into account. 

In our survey of Deaf Museums, we asked for the number of visitors - in pre-Covid times:

 In our Survey for Mainstream Museums, we also asked about the number of (pre-Covid) visitors. The numbers vary between 700.000 to 1.8 million per year.