Seeing the Sights Through Description and Touch

AUDIO VERSION

By Linda Bartram

Prior to travelling to Greece and Great Britain this May, I endeavoured to arrange some descriptive tactile tours, including ones in Athens, on the urging of an AEBC member with connections to Greece.  I asked ChatGPT to tell me about such tours in Athens and Edinburgh and found several were listed and all appeared to require pre-arrangement.  A few weeks in advance, I attempted to make contact with the tour operators in Athens but did not receive any replies so I wrote again.  Just a few days before I left for my trip I did hear from the National Archaeological Museum contact person, indicating that no pre-booking was necessary, so I just made inquiries when we arrived.  We — my sister and I — were given free admission and assigned a young woman who was provided with a list of exhibits to show us.  This was her first described tactile tour.  She explained, and I was encouraged to touch, a series of models of statues which depicted archaeological discoveries through the centuries.  I was also encouraged to explore actual statues and gravestone plaques. 

I was successful in connecting with the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh prior to leaving for my trip. I exchanged several emails with the archaeologist, David, who was to conduct the described tactile tour. We set up a date and time, and I provided my areas of interest so he could plan the tactile tour which included an overview of Scottish historical artifacts and exhibits of famous, and not so well known, Scottish medical inventions such as inhalers and prosthetics. We were also “treated” to Dolly the cloned sheep (stuffed of course) who stood on a rotating platform in all her natural glory including a rather “poopy bum” for all to see. We all agreed that this was a rather undignified way to honor her memory.

My final described tactile tour was one that I only heard about the day before we were to visit Hilltop Beatrix Potter House in the Lake District of England. Many of my generation were exposed to her delightful stories as children. Remember Peter Rabbit? The tour was mentioned on the website but there was no way to book it even though you had to purchase your ticket for a specific date and time. Fortunately, Rob did make himself available to take us around, showing me furniture and memorabilia, many with signage stating, “Please do not touch.” They definitely meant it as, at one point, I set off an alarm. I mentioned to Rob that it would be helpful both to the tourist and the venue staff, if the described tactile tour could be booked when purchasing your ticket. Upon my return I sent an email suggesting this and received a reply thanking me for the suggestion which they were thinking of implementing. It appears that I can’t leave the advocacy behind, even on holiday.

Both in Athens and Edinburgh, I took advantage of hop-on hop-off double-decker bus tours, which provided a recorded description of points of interest and attractions on a circular city route. You plug in your own earbuds and select your language of choice.  Such tours, available in most major cities, provide an affordable way of becoming oriented to the city and learning about its main sites. You can hop off and on as many times as you wish and I like to do the entire route (usually about an hour) and then hop off where I wish to visit on my second go round.

Another affordable way of enjoying described tours is to download walking tours. These do vary in the quality of the navigation directions, but we found the information was well researched. My sister came prepared to use her iPhone and downloaded three such walking tours in Greece, sharing her Bluetooth earbuds as we walked. We definitely put in the miles so I had no guilt when ordering dessert at dinner or ice cream in the afternoon on the cruise. 

With some research and planning of descriptive and tactile tours, travel can be just as enjoyable for those of us with limited sight as it is for our sighted travel companions, so don’t hesitate if you get the chance to “see” the world through description and touch.