Experiencing Nature As A Visually Impaired Person

The pace and pressure of modern life has caused many people to seek out a closer relationship with nature. Research has shown that spending time in nature has huge mental health and wellbeing benefits. It enables people to experience a sense of connection and companionship with the world around them. 

But some people argue that conventional ways of enjoying nature prioritise visual experience. The Royal National Institute of Blind People reported that 40% of visually impaired people feel isolated and cut off from people and the environment. This is a problem. So, in this blog we explore the ways visually impaired people can enjoy nature and the benefits that come with it.

Between 2016 and 2018, Dr Sarah Bell of Exeter University tried to answer the question, “How do people living with sight impairment experience nature during their lives?”, in her project Sensing Nature. Her objective was to address the limited understanding we have about the methods available for blind and partially sighted people to experience nature.

A huge part of the problem is that a visually impaired person’s experience of nature is articulated in terms of a disability. As Dr Bell got deeper into the project, she began to realise “how frustrating it must be to live in a sensory world that is constantly assumed to be a lesser version of the sighted world” and wanted to transform attitudes about the visually “impaired” experience.

Not only do many existing perspectives miss out on the idea of “multi-sensory” knowledge, which is essential for life without sight and for the full enjoyment of nature, they also treat visual impairment as an abnormality. However, when 1 in 12 people are predicted to be partially sighted by the time they are 60 years old, and 1 in 2 by 90, visual impairment should be, Dr Bell thinks, considered a normal part of human experience.

Participants in the study reported feeling a sense of freedom from anxiety-inducing environments when they spent time in nature, as well as from narrow social attitudes about partial sight or blindness. They also felt that they were able to “skill up” by using their other senses to tackle different outdoor terrains.

Recommendations from the project are starting to be implemented. Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire has started running Sensing Nature walks, offering a completely different way of experiencing with nature. One guide describes what happens on these walks: "We touch the trees, we smell the trees, we explore them with our hands, we walk on them and it's a totally immersive, interactive experience".

Dr Bell emphasised an often-forgotten point - the lives of people without sight are very diverse. Her research found that being in nature is not something which resonates with every partially sighted or blind person. The study found that “when getting outside feels more difficult, participants highlighted the importance of creativity and technology as interim strategies for sustaining a sense of nature connection”.

With the fantastic range of portable magnifiers now available, we hope that assistive technology from Optelec can help people get the full benefits of experiencing nature. And if getting out into nature is something you’re working up to, or there are days when you just don’t feel like going outside, we hope that our technologies can offer access to other outlets that provide a mental release.