Travel Experiences of Older Adults with Visual Impairment: A Qualitative Study

ABSTRACT

Older adults with visual impairment desire to travel, and they need specific support to participate in traveling. This study explored the travel experience of 12 older Taiwanese adults with visual impairment. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, including traveling experience, difficulties encountered, the impact of ageing, and specific needs. The principles of grounded theory were used to analyze the data, and four themes were identified. First, older adults with visual impairment wanted to explore the world, improve their mood, gain self-confidence, and foster interpersonal connections through traveling. Second, adjustment to visual impairment and ageing was the basics for traveling. Third, they encountered interpersonal and environmental barriers while traveling. Fourth, they needed a traveling companion to provide practical and psychological support. Older adults with visual impairment needed psychological, practical, and environmental support to ensure trouble-free traveling.

KEYWORDS:

• Accessible Tourism
• ageing
• travel difficulties
• travel needs
• visual loss

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all of the participants who shared their valuable experiences. We also thank Associate Professor Ching-Jen Lin as an external reviewer.

Disclosure statement

The authors state that there was no conflict of interest in this study.

Additional information

Funding

There was no external funding for this study.