Can a Blind Person Enjoy Europe?
 

Do blind folks travel to Europe and i wonder if they can really enjoy it, besides the sounds and tastes. Of course they would be accompanying someone else i'm sure.

Perhaps if they spoke the language they could enjoy conversing.

Wonder if there are any visually challenged folks out there that do travel abroad?

We have Blind people in Europe too Pal!
I have a blind friend. Ok, she is already in Europe but she travels all over with her boyfriend. Takes her guide dog as much as possible too. She went skiing for the first time last winter, and is just back from a week in Paris. Her inability to see has never stopped her enjoying visiting new places. She is hoping to visit the US next year, though the dog will have to stay behind for that trip.

No, I'm sure blind people would much rather sit inside and listen to the clock ticking.

Blind people enjoy pretty much everything sighted people do. The logistics of travel are no doubt more difficult, but European cities and other places are just as enjoyable as their home cities.

don't get me wrong - i'm not against blind folks traveling

just wondering what they can enjoy - it seems everything i go for is visual

and i applaud blind folks who do travel and i supose with a companion that companion can relay the excitement of experiences so i'm thinking more positively about it due to first two posts

Well I guess most museums and architecture are out. That leave sounds and tastes like you said in your posts. And scents also.

I think there might be programs where blind people can touch sculpture, but I could be wrong. I read a biography on Helen Keller and, if I remember correctly, she was allowed to touch Michelangelo's David. I think there was photo in the book. That might have been because she was famous, though.

We have a friend who is blind. She goes wherever she wants to travel. She jumps onto the train (lives in Pau) and goes to Paris without any problem. She rides the Metro too. Of course she has a guide dog too. It's a lovely Lab.

We have inherited her older Lab, when she upgraded to a younger dog. Now we're probably goint to take her current dog when she's ready to change.

She goes to movies, theater, and many places most sited people visit.

While of course we have some things she can't view, she can sound and smell many more things we miss.

Blackduff

For what it's worth, there are a lot of places in Paris that have unique acoustic signatures noticeable even to sighted people, and I'm sure that many more signatures are noticeable to blind people.

For example, the acoustic signature of the Eiffel Tower when you stand just beneath it is very distinctive indeed, quite unlike just about anything else you might hear. Excursion boats have a distinctive noise. The Métro is filled with distinctive sounds (and smells!). Notre-Dame has a sound of its own. Even the average major street has a sound that isn't quite the same as the street sounds of other cities. Fresh French bread and croissants and onion soup have distinctive smells too. And so on.

Although vision represents about 80% of the information we perceive in the world around us, the other 20% is still significant, and it's distinctive enough from one place to another that it's to understand how a blind person might enjoy Europe.

In the book about Helen Keller, it also mentioned that she liked going to the theater. It was the vibrations and energy around her that she enjoyed. I found it really fascinating.

This past summer while talking with two of my tutors at Oxford, they mentioned how much they enjoy taking groups of blind students on field trips.

One said it is thrilling to take them to a cathedral and watch their faces as he begins to speak. As his voice carries, the size and grandeur of the cathedral can be "seen" by the students. Their hearing is so finely tuned they can "visualize" the volume and dimensions of the structure and "see" it clearly. A sighted person enters a cathedral and looks around in awe. A blind person can also experience awe, joy and wonder in such a setting and perhaps perceive things that would be missed by those with sight.

An example of this was given by the other tutor. He took a group to an archaeological site. They broke into groups and were allowed to handle shards of pottery. Each group was asked to sort the pottery by type. After feeling the incised lines, curvature, and other physical features the groups had no trouble sorting out the pottery. One group, however, was divided and couldn't reach a decision over a piece. It didn't seem to belong to any of the groups. You guessed it. They were able to feel differences in the pottery which were not apparent visually. They had discovered a transitional style of pottery making. Instead of 2 styles, there were, in fact, 3.

Food is a big part of my enjoyment of traveling to Europe, and blind people like to eat, too.

I have been to many European cities that are sensitive to blind travelers.

Many, Münster comes to mind, have replicas of the city so blind people can "feel" their way around town and "feel" the architecture. I have even seen TI offices and museums with braille information.

Switzerland has braille on its banknotes

the bit about Munster and other cities having such facilities for blind is great and i never realized that - i'll have to look for the things.

And the food, the scents...I suppose there are lots of things that most of us just don't "enjoy" because our senses are too busy with sightseeing :)
A blind spanish singer hiked the Aconcagua to the top some years ago. He said it was great because he couldn't see how high he was and feel afraid looking down LOL

Unfortunately they cannot read this to respond.

The blind enjoy life, beyond "seeing the sights". (There's a redundancy for you!)

So why wouldn't an unsighted person enjoy Europe? If I'd had a blind man accompanying me in Vienna, he'd have heard the Stadtoper performance of Nozze de Figaro.

If in Amsterdam, the English-Speaking Theater's production of Entertaining Mr. Sloan, and the beer of course.

In Paris, the Greek musicians in a little restaurant in the 5th. And listening to French spoken all around, and the sounds of the bois and the parcs. Music in the churches (something sighted people would travel there to hear.) And many, many thousands of sighted people go to France and Italy and else where for the food first of all.

I have no doubt that the blind can appreciate any place as well as the deaf, or those whose only handicap is insensitivity to their surroundings, lack of appreciation for unfamiliar food, and unwillingness to cross a cultural divide!

No to mention, there are many among the blind who travel as part of their work and undoubtedly get a lot of satisfaction from it - they, no less than anyone, are entitled to their wanderlust.

vjpblovesitaly, I believe many museums have active programs for the blind, allowing the enjoyment and exploration not only of sculpture but other 3-dimensional arts: ceramics, metalworks, glass ...

And wouldn't a blind music lover enjoy handling antique instruments?!

PQBob - you have asked some pretty vacuous questions - but this one takes the cake. Why on EARTH??

I have blind friends, deaf friends -- and most of them REALLY enjoy traveling anywhere. sheesh . . . .

PalenQ--Your phrasing may not have been the most PC, but I'm sure your intentions were not bad. You are consistently helpful to many people here.

Wasn't it great that so many answers were wonderful? I love the pottery story. And the cathedral anecdote. I'm not sure if the poster name (specs) was in great taste, but hey, those anecdotes nullify any intended pun.

Just a few posts ago, I told someone who was quite rightfully worried about the noises in a Rome hotel that "noise-phobic" me has finally, finally learned to take in sound as part of the culture. I mentioned there that my memory of Switzerland was the sound of loud cows bells all night.

What I did not mention was that along with that "sound memory" I also used to remember the stars above, the lights of the city below, and the lights of the Eiger tunnel leaking through the face portals.

How strange that the sound memory is stronger now.

Blind people can and do read websites like this one, with text-to-speech.

This is pretty funny. I thought this was another thread started by distant_traveler, travelguru1, or whatever his new screen name is... :D