Don’t miss the latest developments in business and finance.

An eye retreat

Two women have designed a website for the visually impaired where they can make their own travel itinerary and embark on a journey of exploration

visually impaired tourists
Joy of sensing: Divya and Ritu with two of the fellow travellers during their food trail in Varanasi
Sneha Bhattacharjee
Last Updated : Apr 01 2018 | 6:00 AM IST
Divya Saxena and Ritu Sinha were two successful creative heads of a leading advertisment agency till about a year ago. On a trip to Europe sometime last year, as they were having a leisurely cup of coffee at breakfast, they saw two visually impaired men enter the restaurant seeking their way to the washroom. “As the waiter guided them through the tables, Ritu and I were struck at how we had not encountered a single visually-impaired tourist in our 20-25 days long trip,” says Saxena.

This got them thinking and researching: Were any tours or packages curated specially for the visually impaired? “As we expected, there was hardly anything online. However, there was quite a lot of data showing there was a sizeable population of such tourists around the world,” says Sinha, adding their conversation during office breaks and post-work hours increasingly began to veer towards creating something for this (visually impaired) section of the population. That led to the founding of BAT Travels.

Not that they weren’t aware of the pitfalls. A travel website for the visually impaired where they could get to pick their own packages was an untried and untested idea in the country. “A look at our site would make you think there’s nothing particularly special about it — but it has been designed for our target audience,” says Saxena, adding that their site is WCAG2.0 accessible — that is, a visually impaired person can navigate their way on the site easily. 

Quitting their jobs at the peak of their career to start something of their own was both exhilarating and overwhelming. “We knew it wouldn’t be easy to raise funding so we boot-strapped on our own and put our life’s savings into it,” says Sinha. “It’s not like we had a lot of money in the banks,” adds Saxena. 

In order to give the visually impaired the joy of travel and get them to experience the feel of a place, it was important that someone close be there to guide them. “Our tour batches usually consist of 10-15 people — a mix of the visually impaired as well as those who can see,” says Saxena. It is the sighted who become the eyes and ears of the visually impaired. Saxena and Sinha accompany the groups on every tour. “We have taken four trips so far and are going on our fifth one to Jim Corbett,” says Sinha. 

One of the travellers being made to experience the carvings on a door in the bylanes of Varanasi
From river rafting in Rishikesh to paragliding in Kamshet (near Mumbai), and even experiencing the making of Benarasi saris in a weavers’ colony in Varanasi, Saxena and Sinha attribute their successful journeys to the people who have been a part of their tours — both the sighted and the visually impaired. “At first, it is difficult to initiate a conversation but then they themselves start cracking jokes — about their challenged sight, thus breaking the ice,” says Saxena. “For the sighted people, it is a different experience. They come to us with their children and say they want to be part of such tours to sensitise their children about all kinds of people they might encounter in life,” she says. 

Every trip is a learning experience for Saxena and Sinha, who are now eyeing an international tour package for the visually impaired and also looking to grow their groups. “People don’t come to us with money on their mind. Our packages are so designed that most people spend more on ticketing than our travel plans,” says Sinha. “All they want is to experience the joy of travelling and we try and ensure that they have the true experience,” she adds. 

Ensuring the visually impaired get permission to participate in activities they normally wouldn’t be allowed to, is a challenge that both the women face with positivity. “It took us a lot of convincing to get our group to do river rafting at Rishikesh but we ensured that all the safety checks were in place to avoid any mishap,” says Saxena. 

Recalling an incident from their recent trip to Varanasi, they recount with gratitude how much the visually impaired have taught them. “While walking through the by-lanes in a weavers’ colony, we came across a snake charmer. A 60-year-old visually impaired woman was walking in front of us. While all of us just stood there terrified of the snake, when we told the woman what we had just seen, she wanted to ‘feel’ the snake. We were taken aback but the snake charmer got her to hold the snake, reassuring us all the time as we clicked pictures of the two of them,” recalls Sinha, adding how scared they were but there was not a hint of fear on the face of the visually-impaired woman as the snake writhed sinuously. It was a moment of tactile truth.

Next Story