Hello everyone, Hope you’re all doing well. A few weeks ago, I reached out to the group looking for advice on traveling as a fully blind person in India. I wanted to share a quick update on what we’ve been cooking up for our trip.
For context, we’re two fully blind guys trying our hand at traveling without any sighted friends alongside us — purely for leisure. After all the advice I received from visually impaired friends, both on and off the list, we’ve finally decided to stop thinking and start traveling. :] We chose Goa, mainly because we’re familiar with the place and absolutely love its beaches. We picked South Goa because we wanted a quieter, slower-paced experience. With the help of a travel planner called Xplore the Earth, whom we discovered through their YouTube channel, we’ve carefully planned out our five days. Technically, it’s a 3.5-day trip spread across five days, so we have enough breathing room for things going sideways, last-minute changes, and the occasional “well, that didn’t go as planned kind of stuff. We’ve also reached out to our Airbnb host, explained our disability, and clearly communicated the kind of help we might need at the property. We’ve chosen a place with relatively easy walking access to the beach, which should hopefully make things a little easier. For activities, we’ve deliberately picked experiences that are tactile and interactive — local bread making, pottery, music jams, beach hopping, distillery tours, and more. We’ve contacted everyone involved, explained our situation, and worked out a few small arrangements to make the experiences more enjoyable and accessible for us. None of the people we’ve interacted with have prior experience working with travelers with visual impairments. None of these activities were designed specifically for blind people either. But everyone has been willing to figure things out with us, and we’re all trying to find that accessible middle ground. So, this trip is carefully planned, but with plenty of room for both delight and disaster. It could end up being a useful how-to guide for future blind travelers. Or it could become a cautionary tale for travel planners trying to build more disability-friendly experiences. Either way, we’re going to document all of it here through vlogs, articles, and podcasts. I’m equal parts terrified and excited right now, imagining all the possible scenarios we might encounter as two blind travelers doing this on our own. So please wish us all the luck you can. We’re probably going to need it. :] Also, if you stay in Goa, run an organisation there or know of any organisations, please do let me know. We would love to meet and hang out with you one of the days. We will be there from 21st Sep to 25th Sep. Cheers, Uma Shankar -- Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list.. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "AccessIndia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/accessindia.org.in/d/msgid/accessindia/CACpHEFKsqZudQpcB9qvMw1qACSEE2i_yFHy9V5-PmthGVG2gvw%40mail.gmail.com.
