VIDEO: Hotel Manager Uses Wheelchair for a Day

Some of the most genius ideas are the simplest ones. For example, if you want to experience a hotel from a wheel-chair-users perspective and do an ADA compliance check at the same time, sit down and spend time in a wheelchair. In 2018, the hotel manager at the Alfond Inn Hotel did just that–with some coaching from Sylvia Longmire, who writes about the accessibility of destinations in her travel blog, Spin the Globe. The hotel manager later shared his insights with hospitality students. All are interviewed on camera about the experience. To see the video, visit Sylvia Longmire’s YouTube Channel here.

OUR TAKE
 The hotel manager’s nervous smile during his on-camera interview with vlogger Sylvia Longmire is priceless—he’s humble, friendly, honest and relieved. He’s a gem in a world of hotel managers, many of whom declined the offer. Longmire worked with hospitality program students at Rollins College on the video. They contacted over 50 hotel GM’s before they found one that would agree to be recorded in a wheelchair.

As for Longmire, she is her classically, compelling professional self: An Airforce intelligence vet, a 2016 Ms. Wheelchair America who is the first wheelchair ambassador for Oprah Magazine‘s Advisory Board and the author of an accessible cruise book. Working with the Rollins students on the video, the team really connects with viewers.

“I was able to navigate the hotel pretty easily—with the right coaching,” he says with a hand gesture to Longmire that infers, Yes, I needed an expert’s help but we did pretty well as a team! Still smiling he adds, “It seems as though we are compliant.” The short video has a great message, which is: The days of not understanding wheelchair users are over. I might as well try to be compliant and then some.”