Hi Darren

I felt i had to respond to this post, maily due to the fact that a friend of mine who’s father was blind, was discussing this only a few weeks ago.

Lets face it. Most travel companies like to paint a caring face. The truth of the matter is that with so much competition these days, most go for the hard sell.

It’s amazing to see these wonderful travel conferences all over the world promoting there wears without hardly a thought for the disabled traveller.

Profit is what is all about mate, sell as much as possible in the shortest possible time ( One travel consultant told me )

I did find http://www.traveleyes.co.uk on google but from what i can see, it does provide a telephone number and email address and is also up your neck of the woods in Leeds.

A great article Darren, and interesting points made. I followed this up by talking with Phillip Scott of Tour Operator Can be Done. http://www.canbedone.co.uk
Can be Done offers a wide range of holidays for all, but have specialised in original and pioneering wheelchair accessible holidays to a widening choice of destinations.
Phillip made some very interesting points and mentioned that they deal with a Hotel Group in Spain, owned by the Spanish equivalent of RNIB.
Phillip also mentioned of a Hotel in Switzerland whereby they had provided dado rails with different grooves, so you could always find your way around the Hotel. They also used various different sensory devices such as sounds and smells.
Whilst Phillip has worked with people with disabilities ( and his wife Jackie uses a wheelchair) he has found that people with hearing or sight problems tend to get offended by being classed as disabled, and many prefer to travel with Sight seeing partners or friends.
Phillip also used top produce a taped version of their brochure, but apparently it has only been asked for twice in the last five years.
Phillip having more than 20 years experience in working with people with disabilities is extremely knowledgeable and was very helpful in his suggestions of overseas and UK destinations.

I suppose that for many, the cost of employing a Sighted Guide, would mean the cost to the Client might be prohibitive, which is probably why taking a friend, relative etc often occurs.

I do think though , that more hotels could take the lead of the Swiss Hotel, and provide more thought on things such as notched Rails and Sensory aids.

Everybody is different Darren, and it’s all about finding out more about the Customer and their wants and needs, It’s kowing which company to approach that might specialise, such as Can Be Done.

I suspect in the majority of cases, a holiday for somebody such as Anna, could be reliant on having a sighted friend as company.
Perhaps you could survey a few Operators Darren, and find out what their contracting policies are with regards to people with disabilities, or loss of sight and or hearing.

Good post - some really interesting comments too. Earlier this year we ran a story on a Which report that - in the language of the media - ’slammed’ most big travel providers for providing insufficient support.

There’s also a chap called Scott Rains who writes a good blog on travel and accessibility.

Hope you’ll post about it if you come across any good providers for blind or otherwise disabled travellers, Darren.

What plans do you have to make this site easier to read for blind travelers?

This is a market not yet tapped into. Search for holidays for the blind on Google and you only find one company actually specialising.

http://www.traveleyes.co.uk

Darren

At my company we went though a training course and have equipment proved by RNIB before the act came into force. One thing that should be worth noting is all disabilities have different types. When you say blind do you mean she has no vision, because that makes up the smallest number of customers?

But as Lee Harrison says you have to know more information to match the customer to a holiday, this does not matter if they are disabled or not.

I saw a company called Traveleyes that won the disabled entrepreneur award and was interviewed on BBC1 breakfast on Friday. Its managing director Amar Latif was interviewed with easyjet founder Stelios (who has set up this award). Amar was presented with a cheque for £50k from Stelios.

Traveleyes specialise in taking blind and sighted travellers all over the world. There service it seems is open to anyone across the world. If you are blind, this offers you independence. If you are sighted, it offers you a holiday with an enhanced purpose and the chance to make new friends.

I would just like to make you all aware of the first ever disabled villa built in Bulgaria for the blind
For more info please go to
http://www.bulgariadisabled.com

A charity called Vitalise has provided holiday breaks with sighted guides for over five years. I have just receied their current brochure and there’s some fantatsic holidays to New Zealand, Peru and the USA. All of the breaks come with sighted guides provided and a Vitalise tour leader, went on a break last year to London and had a great time.