By KHT Staff. Images via Travel Tainan.
TAINAN — Tainan is adding sign-language guides to its city walking tours as part of a push to make historic sites more accessible to hearing-impaired visitors.
The Tainan Tourism Bureau (台南市政府觀光旅遊局) said it has trained seven certified sign-language guides, including two with Class B sign-language interpreter certification.
The guides are expected to join the city’s walking-tour program, beginning with the Confucius Temple route, which links several major cultural sites in central Tainan.
The route includes the National Museum of Taiwan Literature (國立臺灣文學館), Tainan Confucius Temple (台南孔子廟), Fuzhong Street (府中街), Patriotic Women’s Hall (愛國婦人館), Tainan Butokuden (台南武德殿) and Hayashi Department Store (林百貨).
Tourism Bureau Director Lin Kuo-hua (林國華) said the training covered route practice, cultural interpretation, everyday sign language, visitor reception, and gender-equality education.
Tainan currently offers 12 themed walking-tour routes, including the Confucius Temple history route and tours focused on old houses, shops, and everyday life.
The new sign-language service also reflects a broader effort to make the city’s tourism staff and volunteers more aware of accessibility, gender equality, and visitor safety, the bureau said.
Tainan, often promoted as Taiwan’s old capital, has been working to use its temples, historic streets, museums, and preserved buildings to attract both domestic and international travelers.
