Countryside experiences

Get involved

This is where you can participate in the project.

If you have impaired vision or are a sighted guide for someone who has and would like to get involved with the project, I would really like to hear about your experiences of being in the countryside. This could be a description of a recent experience or an evocative memory from years passed. You may wish to describe a walk route that you have ventured many times or describe your experience of a new walk. I'd be glad to hear about a specific walk or a more general account of your countryside experiences. What's important to you?

How do I submit my account?

At the bottom of this page there is a 'Contribution Form' through which you can submit your account.Before submitting your experience, please read or listen to the Information Sheet [DOC 113.00KB]Information Sheet - Participant Group 2 [MP3 7.32MB] and the Participant Consent Form [DOC 107.50KB]Participant Consent Form - Participant Group 2 [MP3 2.26MB] which tells you more about the project and how the findings will be used.

If you would like to submit your response by postal mail, please find my postal address on the 'get in touch' tab.

What shall I include?

It would be really helpful if you would start by briefly describing the nature of your vision impairment and what your vision has been like over the course of your life. Medical labels are often not very descriptive of people's actual experience, so a description would be really helpful. It would also be useful to know how regularly you visit the countryside too. 

Here are some questions to get you thinking!

  • What is your sensory experience of the countryside? Sounds, scents, feelings, or any other sensations?
  • What is your favourite place and why?
  • Have you ever walked with a sighted guide? If so, what was this like and how was it different to walking alone?
  • How have you found your way in the countryside?
  • Do you have a strongest memory of the countryside?
  • Do you have any particular techniques, skills or strategies that you use when walking in the countryside?
  • What is your favourite time of day to walk and why?
  • How does weather affect your walks?

I would be really interested to receive any photographs, sound recordings, audio descriptions or walk diaries that you have created. Please email them through to countrysideexperiences@sussex.ac.uk.

Please invite friends and guides to participate. The more varied the accounts that are submitted, the more useful this research will be in understanding how people engage with the countryside. 

I look forward to reading your contribution, thank you!

Contribution Form

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