See less, experience more
Sight isn’t the only way to view a landscape – it’s about engaging all your senses, according to Amar Latif
Blindness hasn’t stopped Amar Latif seeing the world. A few years after losing his sight, aged 18, he jumped at the chance to spend a year studying in Canada. “I learned the world was still out there, waiting for me,” he says. “It didn’t matter that I was blind, I could get as much out of travelling as a sighted person – maybe even more.” He was dismayed that no holiday company was willing to accommodate his disability, and in 2004 set up Traveleyes to offer trips to blind and partially-sighted people, with seeing companions travelling at a discounted rate (traveleyes-international.com).
From trekking the jungles of Nicaragua to scaling Morocco’s Mount Toubkal, Amar has barely stopped since – but the pandemic forced him to start exploring closer to home, in the parks and woodlands around Leeds. Blind people often need a sighted guide to help them navigate unfamiliar spaces, he explains, but this requires physical contact – so social distancing meant getting creative. A friend guiding him via video call gave Amar a first chance to experience something most of us take for granted: walking alone. “I ask my guide to hang up for a few minutes and just enjoy the space I’m in,” he says. “As a blind person it’s rare I can go somewhere quiet entirely by myself, especially in nature.” One of his favourite walks is along the River Nidd, as much an aural experience as a visual one.
His sightlessness is no obstacle to taking pleasure in his surroundings, though.
“A lot of sighted people don’t realise that having vision stops you properly engaging. People walk around glancing at things and taking Instagram shots, but when you’re relying on your other senses, you pause and take time to experience things. When I’m walking, I might not see it, but I certainly know what it smells, feels and sounds like.” He points out that while blind people can’t make use of a view, a walked journey is an experience in itself. “In the countryside I can listen out for animals, smell the flowers, feel the elements, connect with the land. In a city, it comes alive with the sounds and scents of human life, and I get to meet the character of the place I’m in.”
Walking with a sighted friend helps Amar paint a more vivid mental picture. “The best companions are descriptive and passionate about where they are,” he says. “They really pay attention to a place to convey it to their partner.” This process is very much a two-way street, says Amar, with those being guided often schooling the guides. “Sighted people aren’t used to using their other senses – our visually impaired travellers are often the ones to open their minds up to wonderful sensory experiences they rarely pay attention to.” »