Jenny talks candidly about her sight loss journey and her life so far.

Gavin talks to us about the App Edinburgh Up Close: Footsteps Through Time, An accessible guide that can be used in Edinburgh, and also updates us on his work with traffic crossings.

Vision Hotels (part of Action for Blind People)

In an ideal world, a person’s ability would not be a factor in influencing whether or not they have an enjoyable, relaxing and stress-free holiday and we are determined to ensure that we make this ideal a reality.

Although Vision Hotels operates exactly like a commercial business, we are different because we are a non-profit organisation and are part of Action for Blind People.

We think that this is great for everyone. People from all walks of life and all abilities can enjoy our hotels and we see ourselves as a mainstream hotel with a big difference.

Travel for most visually impaired people is fraught with difficulty, worry and stress, as it is virtually impossible to replicate the set-up that most people spend a long time creating in their home environments. As such, they usually make compromises or do not participate in certain activities, which ultimately results in not having the rich holiday experience they deserve.

At Vision Hotels, the intimate understanding of the needs of visually impaired people is at the core of all of the services and activities that our hotels provide, creating the perfect foundation to enable visually impaired hotel visitors to relax and have choice, to tailor their holiday around what they want to do and not what they are able to do.

ContactAndrew Wilson

Extant is the UK’s leading professional performing arts company of visually impaired people.

We create exciting touring productions performed, directed and written by visually impaired artists, which are accessible to audiences without requiring additional audio description. We offer supported visits, ticket deals, touch tours and accessible workshops to help visually impaired audiences get the most out of our shows. We provide our tour venues with training in visual impairment awareness and accessible marketing to improve our audiences’ experience.

Extant’s long-running youth theatre and adult participation programme for visually impaired people offer supportive and fun workshops, including: movement and dance (contemporary, street dance, ballroom, flamenco), script writing, creating a radio play, forum theatre, music, voice work and magic. We cater for ages 15+, and for all abilities ­­- from having a go to professional development - and support individuals looking for career progression through trainee roles.

Extant offer training and consultancy to other organisations in the arts, education and beyond to improve accessibility. Our ongoing programme of research, including high tech solutions to accessibility, feeds into our unique methodology.

TAKE PART!

Try our fun taster theatre workshop at Sight Village: 11am, Wednesday 15 July. All abilities welcome (ages 18+), register on the ‘Seminars and Events’ page.

Interested in career opportunities? Sign up for our ‘Train the Trainers’ course: Extant are recruiting more members to our skilled team of visually impaired facilitators to deliver our awareness training.

Sign up to our mailing list to receive the spring 2016 tour dates of Extant’s next production, Ionesco’s The Chairs. Includes schools and colleges workshops about this classic drama text.

Extant is a charity, supported by Arts Council England.

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We had the pleasure of talking to Sheila Armstrong, Who is the leader of Client Services at the Torch Trust about all the work this do and about what to expect at Sight Village this year

For more information

Its great to welcome Lindsay back to talk about British Blind sport and what they can offer

For more information please contact BBS on

We speak to Chris Rose from Guide Dogs about there work and what people can expect at this years Sight Village