Gathering the courage to travel to an unknown location when you are visually impaired or blind can be intimidating. Sometimes it seems like it is just easier to stay home. I traveled all over the world when I worked in the videogames industry, and when I lost my sight, all that changed overnight. I have always had the travel bug, and always enjoyed experiencing new places. I found myself almost completely blind, and decided to stay home because it was too much of a hassle to research new places to go, then one day I decided to make some changes and start traveling again. Sure, I was terrified, I knew things would go wrong, I knew I would get lost, and I knew I would need help. What if I told you there was a free monthly meeting online and via phone that would connect with other who are visually impaired to talk about traveling the world with low vision?

Hadley Center for the Blind

It’s not just about travel! The Hadley Center for the Blind is an amazing online resource for anyone who is blind or visually impaired. Hadley offers (as of this writing) a free course to learn braille, a variety of podcasts and courses to help with daily living, podcasts and great discussion groups that you can join remotely and speak with others who are blind and visually impaired about a variety of topics. You can find them here: Hadly.edu

Talking Travel

Hadley’s Travel Talk discussion group meets the first Wednesday of Every Month at 4pm Central Time. From their site: “Pack your bags and join Travel Talk to discover tips and tricks, and share your own experience, of traveling with vision loss.” I have attended quite a few of their discussions and even been a featured presenter where I talked about traveling long distance on the train with my guide dog. The Travel Talk group is warm and welcoming and can be a great resource regardless of your skill at traveling. Registration is free, and the discussion group is free. I find it a great place to ask questions about the specifics of traveling with low vision.  Here is a direct link to the schedule for the discussion group. https://hadley.edu/discussion-groups/travel-talk