Writing tourist material for the disabled visitor – key
The Callanish Standing Stones on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides are an extraordinary reminder of our distant past.
Start at the modern visitor centre, sympathetically designed in local stone and fully accessible, and from there make your way to the stones themselves. Here you can get right inside the stone circles, even in a wheelchair, and touch the stones. Although pre-dating Christianity by millennia, the stones form a shape in the land almost identical to a Celtic / celtic cross.
No-one rightly understands why, but whatever the debate about the monument’s / the monuments’ meaning and significance, you have to be hard-hearted indeed not to feel some of the enigmatic magic about this starkly wild, remote and beautiful place.
Spellings: extraordinary; sympathetically; accessible; pre-dating; millennia; whatever; hard-hearted / hardhearted; enigmatic; starkly
Vocabulary: reminder – noun – sth that causes someone to remember sth – eg I’ve had a gas bill reminder (i.e. a letter reminding me I have to pay my gas bill). Perhaps you also remember that you remember sth but if you want someone else to remember sth you remind them of sth.
sympathetically – here = harmoniously
accessible – adj – easy to access or approach – eg an accessible building / town / mountain 2) (of a person) easy to approach, approachable 3) easily understood – accessible tax information (antonym – inaccessible)
pre-date – verb – to exist, or occur before something else
a millennium – a thousand years – plural millennia
No-one rightly understands = No-one really / fully understands
Word order: after ‘whatever the debate‘ you could 1) miss the verb out, as here – whatever the debate, you can still appreciate the place or 2) include a verb – i.e. whatever the debate is / might be / has been about why this happened, you can still appreciate the place.
The monument’s meaning and significance or the monuments’ meaning and significance – the apostrophe could be either for the singular or plural here, depending on whether you view the site as a monument or several monuments as there are several sites.
hardhearted / hard-hearted – lacking in compassion or feelings; cold and pitiless. (antonym: soft-hearted / softhearted – kind and compassionate, perhaps sentimental)
You have to be hard-hearted indeed – only an unusually unemotional person would fail to find this place moving
enigmatic – adj – mysterious
stark – adj – bare, simple or obvious, especially without decoration or anything which is not necessary; severe, extreme or bare in appearance; unpleasantly or sharply clear. Eg The clinic was stark, with white walls and shabby furniture. The boss explained the stark truth – that the firm was going bankrupt.
Their son is doing well – in stark contrast to their daughter, who has spent months trying to find a job and somewhere to live.
starkly – adv – severely, extremely; with great contrast
remote – adj – far away in distance or time
Style – in tourism material key facts and figures about opening times, distances or location are usually stated succinctly and with minimal punctuation – eg
Visitor centre open April – Sept Mon – Sat 10am – 6pm. Free admission
Tel: 01851 621422; enquiries@calanaisvisitorcentre.co.uk
Nearest town: Stornoway; Nearest village: Callanish
Map reference: NB 213331
The description of the site is written in a more heightened style, using intensifying nouns, adjectives, adverbs and phrases aimed at attracting people to the site.
No-one rightly understands = No-one really / fully understands
You have to be hard-hearted indeed not to …. – Most people will find this place moving
Notice the plain English ‘start at’ ‘you can get right inside the stones‘. Plain English uses active verbs rather than passive constructions, which are often harder to understand – eg ‘The visit may be started from …. the stones can be reached….’
If you’d like to see more about the site!
An exercise on meanings of typical terms for disabled visitors