Travel Resources for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Grants, organisations, apps and services for blind and low-vision travellers.
Project Grants
Blind Travel Foundation
$10,000 Travel Grants for individuals who are blind and visually impaired to imagine, design, and lead travel projects that benefits the blind and visually impaired community.
- Website
- Application
- Deadline: TBA
- Newsletter
Athletic Travel Grants
Challenged Athletes Foundation
Financial grants for athletics. Travel assistance included.
Challenged Athletes FoundationWebsite- Application
- Application Deadline: TBA
- Newsletter
The Cordani Family Grant Program
Travel Race Grants for participation in a select Achilles race.
The Cordani Family Grant ProgramWebsite- Application
- Applicaiton Deadline: TBA
- Newsletter
Foreseeable Futures Foundation
Financial grants for athletics. Travel assistance included.
Foreseeable Futures FoundationWebsite- Application
- Application Deadline: TBA
- Newsletter: Scroll to the bottom of any page to sign up
Leisure Travel
Blind and Visually Impaired Focus
Cocky Guides
Australian Tours – a not-for-profit social enterprise that specializes in providing unique, multi-sensory adventures in small groups for the blind and low-vision community. They offer short to several day tours around Australia.
Cocky GuidesWebsite- Newsletter sign up is at the bottom of the homepage.
Minds Eye Travel
Worldwide excursions for the blind and visually impaired. They often collaborate with cruise lines and tour operators. Emphasizes accessibility and comfort.
Minds Eye TravelWebsite- Call for trip availability: 207-542-4438
- Newsletter
Seable
Seable is a travel company that creates customized vacations for blind and partially sighted travelers, focusing on independence, confidence, and immersive cultural experiences. Their trips are designed to be fully inclusive, combining local guides, tactile activities, and tailored support to ensure every traveler can explore the world with dignity and ease.
SeableWebsiteTraveleyes
Worldwide excursions for the blind and visually impaired. Group tours that mix blind/visually impaired travelers with sighted travelers. Emphasizes shared experiences and social interaction.
TraveleyesWebsiteTravel Visions Aloha for the Blind
Making Hawaii’s outdoors accessible for the blind and visually impaired with events such has hiking and whale watching.
Travel Visions Aloha for the BlindWebsite- Newsletter signup is at the bottom of the homepage
General Disability Focused Travel Organizations
DiversiGO
Budapest and Hungary
Offers guided tours for people with disabilities
- Newsletter sign up is at the bottom of the page
Planet Abled
India – Inclusive vacations, mostly Inda
Planet AbledWebsiteParatransit tip when traveling to other states
If you are registered with Paratransit in your home area, you may be able to access Paratransit services nationwide. The initial step is usually to obtain the fax number of the Paratransit service in the area you plan to visit. Provide this fax number to your local Paratransit service, and they can send your details to the destination service to facilitate your registration and use of their services while you are in that district.
Podcasts
The People Make The Places – Mike May and FriendsPodcastApps and devices for traveling
Presented by Kevin Chao at the 2024 Blind Travel Summit
Compass
Get orientation in degrees and cardinal directions.
OKO
access to pedestrian heads of when to walk or not walk, where there is not an APS or sufficient pedestrian traffic.
Google Translate
invaluable tool for bridging the language gap, such as when I was in Japan, China, France, Italy, Switzerland, or Mexico either on the streets or in non-English speaking-only restaurants and shops.
I use Braille Screen Input to type what I wanted translated, and turn VoiceOver OFF, and show the non-English speaking person I’m trying to speak to, where they can use the voice-input to speak what they want to say to me, and I can turn VoiceOver back ON, and have what they said read back to me in English or read it in Braille on Brailliant BI 20X. I used it for asking what is popular, recommendations, seafood, that I can do things on my own, restroom.
Google Maps
Settings > Navigation > Last item (4-finger tap in bottom-half) for Detailed voice guidance, Hear more frequent and detailed audio announcements during walking navigation. Toggle this ON, which will give you more detailed feedback as you are walking using pedestrian routes, including that you’re going the correct way and how much farther to go to the next turn. It’s easy to cycle through the different modes of transit types: driving, walking, transit, or ride share), can be used while another background audio playback app is being used, easy to swipe up/down to see next/prev step in directions, and can search for pit-stops along the way.
Robust global directions for anywhere in the world.
Transit
works globally to give public transit directions, whether it be bus or train. It’ll provide info as to how many stops, mins, expected time. It has a “GO” Live Activity that can tell you when you’re a couple of stops away and when it’s time to get off as notifications on Watch and audible, how many mins until bus/train arrival or how many stops will be shown on Dynamic Island in top-left, so all of these things can happen with Transit app in background. I used it yesterday to connect for AC Transit Bus > BART > Caltrain.
Voice Vista
detailed spatial announcement of surroundings, including waste bins, crosswalk, walking paths, steps, stairs, and other expected common POIs. It’s extremely accurate in when to turn and POIs. Markers and Routes can be set manually for custom routes, which is great for places that are frequented often, like trying to find a bus stop or an off-route route that is not typically routed using GPS.
Live Recognition
Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Rotor > Rotor Items > Last Item (4-finger tap on bottom-half of screen) for Live Recognition). Cycle through rotor items until “Live Recognition” > SWIPE UP/DOWN to cycle through the different detection modes, and enable text and door detection by double-tapping. Text and door detection are useful for reading visual signage, such as address number, business name, and for knowing how far the door is and how it opens.
Ray-Bans Meta
Open ear audio that have speakers in frame that have speakers pointing towards my ears that only I can hear, which opens up the environment and world for me to hear and engage with. I have all of the different apps I talked about earlier beaming to my ears, augmenting my reality, while wearing what appear to be just sun glasses. Along the way, I use Meta AI to describe what it sees to a blind person, so I have access to visual signage, scene, and enjoy the beautiful journey.
The last frustrating 50 feet is solved by using Meta AI “Look and Ask” or AIRA or Be My Eyes, who are sighted professional trained agents or volunteers that can see through the glasses camera to provide visual interpretation.
Using Ray-Bans Meta, I video recorded most of the Blind Traveler Summit day, including: walking tour, WayMo interactions, talks, and other interactions throughout the day. Most should be able to hear/listen to the spatial 3D audio in the videos, but try out PiccyBot or Seeing AI for video and photo descriptions to be transported back to the magical moments.