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Project Report by Alex Bulmer Project Title: Blind Travel Writing

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Project Report by Alex Bulmer Project Title: Blind Travel Writing Project Report by Alex Bulmer Project Title: Blind Travel Writing Table of Contents Biography of Alex Bulmer ………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3 Introduction to Report …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4 Executive Summary ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5 Countries and Cities Travelled ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 6 Blindness and Travel ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7 Inclusive Education ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 12 Writing and Literacy ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 15 Access to Arts and Culture – Developing Quality of Life …………………………………………………………. 18 Blindness and Culture …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 20 Recommendations and Future Activity ………………………………………………………………………………….. 22 Conclusions ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 24 Additional Material ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 26 2 Biography of Alex Bulmer Alex Bulmer BA, ADVS. MA Writer, Director, Teacher Alex is the writer and narrator of the critically acclaimed acoustic installation LIFE UNSEEN. She is a New York Radio Award nominee, Society of Canadian Musicians award recipient, writer of two award winning short films, and writer of the stage play SMUDGE, which earned two Best New Play nominations in Canada, and was Time Out’s Critics Choice during its UK premiere. Alex has written for The Royal Court, London 2012 Olympics, Graeae , BBC radio; winning an AMI award for her adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Channel 4 series Cast Offs (nominated for BAFTA and Royal Television Society Award), Theatre Centre and Face Front. She is co-founder and Artistic Director of Invisible Flash UK, co-creator of The Canadian based Republic of Inclusion and Artistic Director of Cripping The Stage in association with The British Council Toronto. Her teaching interests are in the area of voice, writing and inclusive creative education. Credits include Central School of Speech and Drama UK, Rose Bruford College, Clean Break, London Metropolitan University, Lyric Belfast, The National Theatre School of Canada, the APAE Institute Brazil, SESC Madureira Rio, Extant Theatre, Deafinitely Theatre, and the Banff School of Fine Arts. Alex was awarded the visa status of Highly Skilled Migrant when she moved to the United Kingdom from her home country of Canada in 2003. She is now a citizen of both countries. In 2014 she was named as one of the UK’s most influential disabled artists by Power Magazine. Alex holds a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities from Bishops University, an Advanced Diploma in Voice Studies from The Central School of Speech and Drama, and a Master of Arts with distinction in Screenwriting from The University of the Arts London. 3 Introduction to Report What is it like to travel blind? This was the central question behind this project; inspired by an experience of travelling seventeen years ago at an early stage of my sight loss, and the travels and writing by the UK’s James Holman. My objectives were numerous, namely as follows: To re-trace some of blind travel writer James Holman’s journey To travel as a blind person in command of the journey To write this travel experience from a blind perspective To maintain a daily travel journal while abroad and generate an on-line blog To inspire and encourage blind people to write about the world from their perspective To create a body of writing by blind writers To provide writing workshops in schools for blind students To educate and enlighten sighted people about the 'mysterious' reality of living blind To motivate blind young people to take risks To share stories by James Holman and introduce him to young blind people as an important part of blind history To make the entire body of work available to the public My dissemination process involved visits to three schools for blind young people, the creation of a web journal and potential productions or publications in association with the BBC or the RNIB. The workshop structure involved two sessions: one following an initial travel experience and a second following completion of travel. This initial workshop would focus on the relationship between ourselves as blind people, and the environments we encounter. Together, we would discuss our perception of the world and how we pass through it, and how we might document this. On my return from the remaining travel I would share my experiences with the students. I would also provide support to them so that they could further develop their writing. Collection of my own writing was a priority, but so too was the involvement of other blind people and their experiences. 4 Executive Summary This report will address the objectives outlined above, with particular emphasis on the following: Blindness Acquired versus congenital blindness and the challenges of travelling without sight Inclusive education Literacy and blindness Writing Language and blindness Access to cultural facilities, ie. galleries, museums and historical sites Blindness as culture Shared experience and de-medicalizing blindness Blindness and travel 5 Countries and Cities Travelled The Winston Churchill Fellowship supported me to travel to the following destinations: Germany: (2014) Freiburg October 16-19 Heidelberg October 19-22 Mainz October 22-24 Ferry up the Rhine River; stopping in St Goar en route October 24 Koblenz October 24 Cologne October 25-29 Berlin - postponed and rescheduled America: (2015) Atlanta May 17 Nashville May 18-21 Memphis May 21-24 New Orleans May 24-27 Montgomery May 28 Portugal: (2015) Porto September 11 Spain: (2015) Tui September 12 O Porrino September 13 Arcade September 14 Pontevedra September 15 Caldas de Reis September 16 Padron September 17 Santiago September 18-22 Barcelona September 22-27 During the year I also visited Toronto and Paris. Although these were not supported by the W.C. Fellowship, I do include some references to these places in the travel journal. 6 Blindness and Travel Reflecting on the initial proposal, things did not entirely go to plan. I initially intended to create a daily blog which would be available to blind people and the general public to follow as I travelled. I completed the first journey before visiting schools in order to share my first travel experience with them, but rather than offer to share daily blogs, I told stories of my experience and committed to collecting my writing into a travel journal which would be available to them via my website. The proposed plan to write a daily blog which they would follow had shifted. The reality of my travelling experience set me toward a rethink. It’s important to point out that I was not born blind. The impact of this plays some significance in the need and decision to alter the approach. So too does the sight- biased nature of tourism. My immigration to blindness can cause imbalance and conflict. Ambitions can sometimes be seeded in a psychology of seeing rather than non-seeing. This can be advantageous as it can support high notions of possibility, high self-expectation, and optimism. The comment “she doesn’t let sight loss get in her way” is often expressed as strength. But this too can be vulnerability. When expectations are imbalanced, grounded more in an attempt to act and achieve as though sighted, without enough grounding in the reality of functioning blind; problems arise. In a world designed for the seeing, this may seem an obvious point, and an obvious lesson to be learned quickly. But my travelling illuminated the fact that despite years of adjustments, gradual sight loss can be like running to catch up with yourself. It’s hard to become blind and not continue to think as a sighted person. Conceptually, at times it’s a mismatch. I had expected some challenges but anticipated that, being with a companion, the experience would be primarily positive and exciting and full of inspiring stories to share. The writing would flow easily, I thought, as it would follow inspiring days. Quite possibly, my initial focus was overly concerned with the impact my writing would have for other blind people, rather than allowing the experience to simply be authentic. I needed to allow the experience to first be genuinely my own. The initial trip to Germany was overly planned, overly scheduled and went at too fast a pace. I was attempting seven cities in eighteen days involving planes, taxis, trains, a ferry, the underground and different hotels and Air B and B’s. Leaving some destinations after only one or two full days did not allow me time to settle, adjust or become orientated. Changing living environments meant constantly learning the route to the bathroom, the layout of the sink versus toilet, how to operate different showers, where the bed is in the room; so many important details of basic functioning that can be embraced quickly using sight, but are studied and practiced when blind. It was exhausting. Equally difficult was the nature of the trip. I attempted a number of visits to historical sites and museums. I was particularly disappointed by a museum in Mainz that claimed to be accessible and suggested some sort of interactive workshop. Although we inquired before entering, the staff did not understand my needs, confused audio guide as audio description, which it is not, and, as they admitted on my departure, was thinking about wheelchair access and those with hearing impairments. The historical sites visited, castles and ruins, did not offer audio or tactile possibilities to directly connect to the experience. There were few alternatives to “site-seeing” or is it “sight-seeing”? The term says it all. As the days passed my sense of connection to the world around me was diminishing. Despite my companion’s skill at describing images, I was tuning out, drifting off and disengaging. One without sight can’t continue if day after day one relies nearly entirely on someone’s translation of what is seen. I tried to rescue the situation with music and finding people to hear who spoke English. I tried sampling differing kinds of food. But after one very frightening night in Cologne, when I became disoriented 7 on a pedestrian island in the middle of speeding traffic, I needed to halt the endeavour.
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