- What is the overall focus and goal of the tour?
- Have you spoken with an accessibility consultant?
- Have you tested your tour with blind and partially sighted people?
What are touch tours?
It’s festival time in Scotland, and there are plenty of performances and shows to mark in your calendar this season. But how can venues and performers make them more accessible to blind or partially sighted attendees?
Touch tours, designed specifically for those with sight loss, offer a unique and immersive way to engage with the show.
We spoke to Kirin about how touch tours work.
Hello, can you introduce yourself?
My name is Kirin Saeed and I am an access consultant and performer. I run an organisation called VICS to support all visually impaired creatives in Scotland and we are growing in number. All I want to do is make shows, museums, galleries, and any other type of arts, accessible for visually impaired audiences and their families.
Can you tell us about touch tours?
A touch tour allows visually impaired audiences to access the set, costumes, and actors of any production. It is an amazing way of engaging with visually impaired audiences in a fun and relevant way. Not to mention, they can enable potential visually impaired performers to learn more about the creative world.
Tours are often held before a performance, and any audience members with sight loss can come and feel the props, set and costumes involved in the show.
What’s it like to take a touch tour?
For me, a touch tour allows me to have a greater understanding of what the set and costumes are like. Descriptions are great but to be able to chat to the stage manager, and sometimes the creative team and actors gives me an in-depth knowledge of what is happening. There is nothing like standing on the stage and being part of the set that brings things to life for me. I have met some incredibly famous and not so famous people. The one thing I always hear back is "We feel so much more confident in approaching a visually impaired person after meeting you.” What more could I ask for?
What should be thought about when creating a touch tour?
Ensure you promote the touch tour widely to the community in all the ways you can. Most tours are an hour or an hour and a half before a show.
Figure out what you want to be available in the tour, like costumes and props, and what you might want to keep as a secret. Not everything needs to be shown as there may be good reasons to keep certain parts of the show a surprise. Your describer, or a visually impaired consultant like me is key to help you work this out.
How can touch tours be customised?
Some people taking touch tours might have other disabilities besides visual impairment. For example, if someone is neurodivergent, it may be that you have a smaller group, or you could explain complex dance moves by allowing the audience to emulate them.
Most touch tours are standard though. Again, it's important to chat to an access consultant to know what works best for you.
How else can a show be made accessible?
Live audio description is a great way to make a show more accessible. Audio description (AD) is additional commentary that explains what’s happening visually, such as describing body language, expressions, and movements, making the performance clear through sound. This is often delivered through headsets so audience members who want to hear audio description can opt in.
If you can’t offer audio description in a show, you could consider having recorded pre-show notes which contain information about the set costumes and character descriptions. The notes could be read by the cast and sometimes could include cast interviews.
If it is difficult for you to run a physical touch tour, you could use a model box- a mini replica of the stage set and some materials to show what the costumes are made of. A combination of a model box set and downloadable pre-show notes, would mean that every show you do would be accessible to VI audiences, not just one or two throughout the run.
Touch Tour Check List
Are you considering running a touch tour at your performance or venue?
We’ve created a checklist to keep handy and tick off before you run your touch tour.
This touch tour checklist is a list of prompts and reminders for you to refer to, to ensure that you’ve considered everything you can do to make your touch tour accessible for blind and partially sighted people.
This may not be an exhaustive list, but we hope that it provides areas to think about so that your performance or venue is ready for everyone.
- Will there be specific dates and times for the touch tours, or can they be scheduled on request?
- How long is the tour, and how much walking or movement is involved?
- Are there rest areas or places to sit during the tour?
- What accommodations are available for individuals with different types of disabilities?
- Who is the primary contact person for the touch tours, and how can they be reached?
- How does someone book a touch tour?
- Are tour guides trained to assist individuals with visual impairments?
- Are there opportunities for participants to provide feedback after the tour?
- How do you collect and utilize feedback from participants to improve the tours?
- What materials will the touch tour include?
- Are any written materials available in alternative formats (braille, large print, audio)
- Is there a narrative or theme guiding the tour experience?
- Besides touch, are other senses (such as smell or hearing) incorporated into the tour?
- Can the tour be customized to focus on specific interests or needs of the participants?
- Are there any safety concerns participants should be aware of when touching certain objects?
- Is there an emergency contact or protocol in place during the tour?
- Are there assistants available to provide one-on-one support if needed?
- Are there any preparatory materials or resources available before the tour?
- Are there audio descriptions or guided audio tours available?
- Could you offer companion tickets?
- Have you considered other ways to make your performance or venue accessible?
