This is an updated post from our archives. The festive season can present unique challenges for blind and visually impaired individuals. This article offers practical tips to make Christmas more inclusive, such as using accessible formats for cards and gifts, and highlights current events and resources available in the UK to support visually impaired people during the holidays.
Accessible Festive Events in the UK
- RNIB’s ‘Christmas Cracker’ Shape and Share Event: This event enables children with vision impairments to connect and enjoy festive activities. Learn more at the RNIB website.
- Henshaws’ Carols by Candlelight: Join a heartwarming carol service organized by Henshaws, supporting people with sight loss and disabilities. Details are available on the Henshaws website.
- LOOK UK’s Big Give Christmas Challenge: Participate in fundraising efforts to support visually impaired young people. More information can be found on the LOOK UK website.
Accessible Gift Ideas for the Festive Season
Looking for the perfect gift that’s both thoughtful and inclusive? Explore a variety of accessible gifts, including tactile games, braille items, and stylish accessories, by visiting the Disability Horizons Shop. Find something meaningful for your loved ones this holiday season!
Christmas can be a wonderful time. But if you have a disability or impairment, many aspects of the season can leave you feeling excluded. Blogger Holly, who has is blind due to Retinopathy of Prematurity and runs the blog Life of a Blind Girl, shares her post on four ways you can make Christmas more inclusive for blind and visually impaired people.
According to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), there are approximately 2 million people in the UK living with sight loss. For more information, visit https://www.rnib.org.uk/.
A few years ago, I started a series of posts with Elin, who runs My Blurred World, about seeing the world through sight loss – you can find everything you need to know about it and our previous posts on my blog.
In this post, we wanted to share some tips on how to make Christmas fully accessible for blind and visually impaired people and how to give us a helping hand during the festive period.
We’re not saying that these tips will work for everyone, or that you have to use them – and we are by no means saying that we personally use them all. But we wanted to share them in the hope that they might be a guide for some people at this time of year.
There are also many more ways to make the festive period accessible and we couldn’t cover everything. We also know that everyone is different, but these are a good place to start…
1. Writing Christmas cards with large print or brail
Brailling or writing a large-print message in Christmas cards is a simple way to make Christmas accessible.
By doing this, it means that the blind or visually impaired person can read the cards themselves independently.
However, it can often be difficult for sighted people to braille Christmas cards themselves, especially if they do not know braille. But there are places that sell braille cards, many of which can be found online. I’ve received a birthday card from Braille Greeting Cards.
If you would like to try to braille your own Christmas card, there are braille guides online to help you with this. Try RNIB (Royal Institute for the Blind) – the braille alphabet card mentioned here could be really useful – and Braillists Foundation has some good resources. It may be a good idea to make the message a bit shorter as braille is larger than print.
If you’re writing your cards in large print, it’s a good idea to write them using a chunky pen on a white or yellow background.
For blind and visually impaired people, brailling or writing large print Christmas cards can be a fun activity to send to other blind or visually impaired friends or family.
2. Label gifts in an accessible format
Ideally, label gifts in a format that’s accessible for a blind or visually impaired person. This can be a huge help!
You can braille the gift tag, write it in large print or use a device that will read it out creating a spoken label, such as a penfriend labeller or the ORCam.
3. Use brail on advent calendars
Brail or put large-print numbers on advent calendars. It can be impossible for totally blind people to find the correct door on an advent calendar and very hard for those with low vision to see the written numbers, so doing this makes it fully accessible.
It’s also a way of promoting independence and making the blind or visually impaired person equal to those with sight.
If a blind or visually impaired person would like to do this, it means that they will more than likely need sighted assistance at first in order to stick the numbers on the correct doors but it can be a fun activity, especially for children. I used to love doing this when I was younger!
If you don’t really have the time to do this, you can also buy tactile advent calendars which are often accessible for blind or visually impaired people.
4. Buy accessible games
We all play games at Christmas right? You can get well-known games or new ones in both braille or large print from many places so it’s fun, inclusive and accessible for everyone.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and found it useful!
By Holly
Check out Holly’s blog Life of a Blind Girl and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
More on Disability Horizons…
