The Silent History of Kaunas
The Local Challenge
For the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community in Kaunas, discovering the city’s history and cultural heritage is still a challenge. Written Lithuanian is often a second language for many Deaf individuals, and differences in grammar can make texts difficult to fully understand. Sign Language is their native language, yet there is currently no information about Kaunas’ rich history and cultural sites available in this form. Without adapted materials, Deaf residents and visitors cannot independently explore the city, and opportunities for social participation, tourism, and learning are lost. This is despite a clear demand, as Kaunas is Lithuania’s second-largest city and home to over 600 members of the Deaf community, eager to know and share the history of the place they live in.
The Initiative
The silent history of Kaunas transforms access to the city’s heritage by creating a fully adapted, Sign Language-based information environment. The project combines training, tours, interactive tools, and games to make 30 cultural and historical sites in Kaunas accessible to the Deaf community.
Library specialists, bibliographers, historians, guides, and educators, deliver a series of lectures on Kaunas’ history and culture tailored for people with hearing impairments. In these sessions, history is not just spoken, but brought to life with interpretation, visuals, and the space for questions and discussion. At the same time, library staff step into the role of learners, receiving training in accessibility and sign language so they can welcome and communicate with Deaf visitors confidently.
From there, the project moves into the city itself. Deaf participants train to become cultural guides, ready to lead their peers through Kaunas’ streets and landmarks. Together, the library and Deaf Center chart new sightseeing routes, each stop linked to an interactive map, QR codes, and videos in sign language with subtitles and audio narration. To make learning playful, the initiative also involves creating an educational board game where the landmarks become cards to match and videos to watch, turning a history lesson into a shared experience with friends and family. All tools are designed to be used both in-person and virtually, enabling independent exploration of the city.
What’s Nxt?
By the time the project draws to a close, Kaunas will feel different to its Deaf community. The landmarks, streets, and monuments that once stood silent will now speak in Sign Language – whether on a phone screen, in a guided tour, or across a library table. Deaf guides trained through the project will be leading groups with confidence, sharing the city’s history in their own words and gestures, while library staff greet Deaf visitors as familiar faces, ready to assist in a language they understand.
The interactive maps, QR-coded routes, and videos will remain as permanent resources, ready for a school trip, a family weekend, or a solo afternoon of exploration. The board game will continue to travel between homes, classrooms, and community events, keeping Kaunas’ stories alive in playful, unexpected ways.
Most importantly, the project will leave behind a stronger connection between the Oak Grove Library and the Kaunas Deaf Center: a partnership that will set a model for how cultural institutions can make history and knowledge equally accessible to all. What begins as The Silent History of Kaunas will grow into an ongoing tradition: a city telling its stories in every language its people speak, including the one told with hands, expression, and movement.
Contact theeuropechallenge@culturalfoundation.eu if you have any questions or want to be connected with the team behind the project.
