Narrative Placemaking: How Words Can Welcome Blind Travelers
Father and daughter grant winners, Josh and Eileen Loebner, will be traveling to Ireland to experience from a blind person’s perspective the culture, camaraderie, castles and more of what the Emerald Isle has to offer
Ireland’s poets, authors and those sharing songs in pubs beckon global travelers, and our goal for this project is to document our explorations, and hear from people describing iconic Ireland, to develop a destination marketing playbook for how other destinations can go beyond photography, and gain a gift of gab welcoming blind travelers with sublime stories. For blind travelers, experiencing a destination, whether across the globe, or a nearby daytrip, evocative words have the potential to play a powerful role, replacing photos, video, and in-person sightseeing to create rich narrative placemaking.
Irish people have a renowned ability to speak with eloquence and persuasion, with legend noting it’s traditionally gained by kissing the Blarney Stone at Blarney Castle near Cork, Ireland. Throughout our travels across Ireland we will capture in-the-moment audio and video and transform these insights into a playbook that any destination marketing team can access and learn from to create their own gift of gab and share their own stories to welcome more blind travelers.
Updates
7/14/2026: Instagram Intoductory Video!
