TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Debbie Austin

How Accessible Friendly Meetings Can Impact Careers

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With the increase of remote work and non-traditional working arrangements, how will in-person meetings for events or conferences be held to ensure that everyone can participate? What message will the way an event or conference is organized or hosted send? This article discusses how to make events both welcoming and accessible for everyone.

Since every business has a different workplace culture, organizational structure, purpose, and size, this article suggest broad ideas that can be tailored to fit how accessible friendly conference and meeting should operate. Read More.

Our Takeaway: Major corporations are realizing that team members with disabilities are reluctant to travel based on prior deleterious experiences, but missing meetings, off-site team building retreats and conferences reduces their opportunity for advancement. Making meetings more accessible sends a message that they are warmly welcome.

Legoland Puts All the Pieces Together for Guests on the Autism Spectrum

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Legoland Resorts announced last month that all its North American theme parks would become Certified Autism Centers (CAC) by March 31st. Legoland parks in Florida and California received autism certification in 2022. The company’s newest theme park in New York will receive autism certification when it reopens in March.

The certification involves specialized training for staff, sensory guides at each ride advising if there are features such as bright lights and loud sounds that might impact visitors who are on the spectrum, and the availability of low-sensory areas and quiet rooms. Read More.

Our Takeaway: Parents with children on the autism spectrum are not willing to have their families forgo vacation experiences at theme parks and attractions. They will choose to spend their money at places that are welcoming to all of their children. Credible certification is a key to winning the trust and confidence of these travelers.

Roll Play: Wheelchair User Shows PCMA Meeting Planners how Columbus Convention Center can be more Inclusive.

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Rosemarie Rosetti consults with the meetings and conventions industry on being accessible for all. Watch this video as she assesses the Columbus Convention Center with a team of meeting planners. Below you’ll find a series of bit-size videos (50 seconds – 90 seconds) where she dissects accessibility features at the convention center and offers a plethora of tips. 

Our Takeaway: We applaud Profession Convention and Meetings Association (PCMA) for including an accessibility field on their registration form, revealing that 33 of the 3300 attendees at their Columbus convention identified as having a disability, around half had mobility issues with the remaining reporting issues around blind/visual impairment, deaf/hard of hearing, or cognitive disorders.

Michigan Group Tour Guide on a Mission to Include Everyone

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Grand Rapid’s Tours Around Michigan Founder has received accolades for adapting her tours to all kinds of travellers.

Tourism was a passion that married Candice Smith’s love of storytelling with her high level of customer experience. Her experience working with spoken language interpreters made it an easy transition to working with sign-language interpreters too. This work quickly resulted in her receiving Certified Tourism Ambassador (CTA) Of the Year for Kent County, MI and a WAVE Award for Best Attraction. Read More.

Our Takeaway: Group tour operators everywhere are trying to accommodate aging clients, several of whom are couples with a spouse with a disability.  This operator may have found one approach.  Look for the trend of bus operators to remove seats to make room for wheelchairs and retrofit coach entries with ramps.

Boomers are Booming. Are We Ready?

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As the world’s population is growing older, the tourism industry will have to adjust, meaning that tourism should be more accessible and inclusive for this category of travellers. Specifically, segments in the tourism sector should adapt and offer more pleasant experiences for this demographic that will soon become the leading group. Adapting, according to Kelly Torrens, the vice president for Kensington Tours, could include more breaks, slower walks, offering assistance for different activities and selecting less difficult terrains, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Our Takeaway: Destinations that ignore this market will lose market share to destinations and experiences that proactively prepare to serve this booming demographic.

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