‘Crawling up the museum for his research’

SHILLONG,SEPT 19: For  Pillbert Hanse crawling up the seven storey Don Bosco Museum building does not deter him from visiting the building to complete his research and on Friday he visited the museum thrice. As differently abled person he uses his knees and palms to climb down the stairs to visit floors down.

Coming from Khamar village in Ri Bhoi district Hanse is is currently doing his 2nd year BA at St. Anthony’s college, Shillong. He has to frequent the Don Bosco museum to do research for his studies.

Although the museum, which is a hexagonal seven-storey building with 18 galleries, has an elevator, a person with disability misses out two galleries in each floor if s/he uses the elevator. For a person like Pillbert, who uses his knees and palm to climb down the stairs touring the museum is very straining and exhaustive.

When asked about his experience in the museum, Hanse said, “It is very exhaustive for me to visit all the galleries in the museum by crawling all along the stairs. But every time I visited the museum, I gain new knowledge and I need to visit a few more times to finish up my research work…”

Don Bosco museum director Fr. Joseph Puthenpurakal  informed  that  efforts are on to make the museum more inclusive and accessible to persons with disability. He said they are also planning to make it more educative, interactive and more visitors friendly.-By Our Reporter