TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

John Morris

Apple Announces Major Accessibility Upgrades to their Phones and Tech Products

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Video call on Apple iPhone with live audio transcription.

Apple has released a bevy of new accessibility features for iPhone, Apple Watch and Mac, including a universal live captioning tool, improved visual and auditory detection modes, and iOS access to WatchOS apps. The new capabilities will arrive “later this year” as updates roll out to various platforms.

The most widely applicable tool is probably live captioning, already very popular with tools like Ava, which recently raised $10 million (and was first introduced at TravelAbility’s Launchpad pitch fest in 2019) to expand its repertoire.

Apple’s renewed commitment to accessibility will allow a greater number of disabled people to access the digital environment more easily (and the physical one as well).

To learn more about Apple’s planned accessibility upgrades, read the article in TechCrunch.

Accessible Hotel Booking Engine Receives Capital Injection from U.S. Private Equity Firm

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Accessible Go logo.

Red Door Capital Partners, LLC, an independent private equity firm founded in 2019, recently announced their investment in the Series Seed Preferred Shares of Tourist Access LTD, the company we know as accessibleGO.

accessibleGO is a travel platform that offers bookings with accessibility data, reviews written by people with disabilities and a community offering accessibility information and support for like‐minded individuals needing the same services. The platform is operational, and following successful consumer marketing tests, accessibleGO quickly experienced 50,000 signups in a few months and saw a repeat bookings rate double the industry average.

“Red Door is so excited to be part of the opportunity,” says Richard Wolpow, Managing Partner. “It’s amazing the level of interest we have received. I was also amazed to learn how many people are peripherally connected to friend or family members that regularly experience the hurdles of travel for the disabled. Knowing that Miriam Eljas, Co-founder and CEO has experienced this firsthand her entire life with her mother only further supported that the right team is at the helm.”

To learn more about Red Door’s recent investment in accessibleGO, read their full press release.

Nature: The Most Accessible National Parks in the USA

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Trail in public park with mountain in distance.

When the National Park Service (NPS) was created, disabled visitors were hardly considered. With rough trails, stairs and steep pathways, the great outdoors was largely off-limits to disabled people.

In May 2012, an Accessibility Task Force was created at the NPS with the goal of improving accessibility over a period of 5 years, from 2015 to 2020.

Over that time, many improvements were made, both to the physical infrastructure in America’s parks, but also to the scope of information shared with disabled visitors. A new understanding about what it means to be “accessible” also took root.

“Accessibility means something very different to a person who is in a wheelchair than to a person who is blind,” says Jeremy Buzzell, who manages the National Park Service Accessibility Support Program. “I don’t talk about [accessibility] specifically by saying people with mobility devices can do things at this park. That’s only an aspect of accessibility.”

To read more about the accessibility improvements at national parks and which have the most to offer disabled visitors, see the article from Conde Nast Traveler.

Wunderman Thompson Agency Hires Global Director of Accessibility to Create More Adaptive Products

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Headshot of Josh Loebner

Congratulations to Josh Loebner, a prominent member of TravelAbility’s Advisory Board. No sooner had he successfully completed his Ph.D. in marketing to people with disabilities from George Washington University, than he was recruited by Wunderman Thompson, one of the world’s largest marketing agencies, as their Global Head of Inclusive Design. There, he will not only be helping major multi-national brands include accessible imaging in their advertising, but he will also work to design and develop adapted versions of their products.

To read more about Loebner’s new role, click here

New Disability Entertainment Agency Debuts at Cannes Film Festival

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Outlyer logo over Cannes screening theater photo.

Australian singer and former X-Factor sensation Emmanuel Kelly has faced tremendous obstacles throughout his life. As a baby, he was found abandoned in a box on the border of Iraq. Due to the chemical warfare used in his community, he was born with underdeveloped limbs and has undergone multiple surgeries and intense rehabilitation. Those challenges did not stop him from following his dream to become a pop star, and he has since performed with Coldplay and opened for stars like Snoop Dog.

This year at the Cannes Film Festival, Kelly announced a new venture: Outlyer, an entertainment agency focused on driving inclusion through multichannel entertainment businesses. Kelly’s company aims to promote disability inclusion through a six-step process of education, empowerment, enablement, elevation, empathy and effectivity.

To learn more about this exciting new company, visit The Outlyer Group’s website.

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