TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

John Morris

TSA to Improve Screening for Disabled Passengers

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Black female, middle-aged wearing a blue TSA uniform.

The Transportation Security Administration is in the process of delivering new training to security officers that will equip them to better assist travelers with disabilities, including those who have difficulty communicating.

The new training instructs officers to look for designations on state identification documents, such as driver’s licenses, that denote disabilities that may impose a communication barrier on the individual. Several states have added endorsements, known as “communication impediment designations,” to licenses and identification cards to denote this fact.

Darby LaJoye, Executive Assistant Administrator for Security Operations at TSA said, “We are updating applicable trainings to ensure that all (Transportation Security Officers) are aware of communication impediment designations and expect to deliver the updated training to the TSOs as early as May 2021.”

This additional training should improve the airport security experience for disabled travelers who face difficulty in communicating with others. To learn more about this development, read the article from Disability Scoop.

FEATURED LANDING PAGE OF THE MONTH: Tampa Bay, Florida

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Visit Tampa Bay has released a new accessible travel landing page to introduce the Gulf Coast city to disabled visitors. The page features information on accessible attractions, including theme parks like Busch Gardens and Adventure Island, museums including the Museum of Science and Industry and the Tampa Bay History Center, and thrilling activities like indoor skydiving at iFly World.

Visitors to the landing page can join power wheelchair user Jamie Santillo, who owns a locally based accessible travel agency, Adventures By Jamie, as she goes indoor sky diving and experiences many of the must-see attractions and points of interest in and around Tampa Bay.

What we Loved about this Landing Page: It captured the essence of the destination focusing on accessible family activities for visitors of different disabilities. 

What Could be Added: Accessible Resources: Accessible airport transfer options, medical equipment repair/rentals and a pop-up box that allows visitors (and locals) to add other accessible suppliers that may not be included. 

To check out this featured landing page, see the Visit Tampa Bay website.

Miami Airport Leading the Charge for Wheelchair Charging Stations

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Miami-Dade County ADA Coordinator Heidi Johnson-Wright is the first charging station user at MIA.

To kick-off Mobility Awareness Month, Miami International Airport (MIA) made an exciting announcement: the airport has installed 10 power wheelchair charging stations throughout its terminals.

Lester Sola, Director and CEO of MIA Airport, said, “One of our highest priorities at MIA is making the joy of air travel even more accessible and convenient for all our customers. Thanks to our new charging stations, travelers using wheelchairs now have more freedom and independence to move around MIA without worrying about low batteries.”

The charging stations are located throughout the airport – 8 post-security and an additional 2 pre-security – and are easily located on the airport’s MyMIAccess map.

OUR TAKE: One of the most frustrating things about traveling with a power wheelchair is keeping it charged, but Miami Airport’s new charging stations will make it possible for wheelchair users to top-off their charge before a flight or during a layover. This fantastic initiative is welcome, and we look forward to other airports following MIA’s example!

To learn more, read the press release on the Miami Airport website.

It’s About Time: CDC Announces Rules for First Test Cruises from USA

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Two cruise ships docked at a tropical port with bright blue ocean water.

In order to resume the operation of revenue cruises from the United States, cruise lines must first participate in a “test cruise phase” to test out safety parameters and procedures.

Guidelines, established by the CDC, state that the test must operate for a duration of between two to seven days, with an occupancy rate of at least 10% based on the ship’s total passenger capacity. Volunteer cruise passengers on test sailings must be fully vaccinated or free of serious, underlying medical conditions that would place them at high risk for serious complications with COVID-19.

Each of the volunteer passengers must be checked for Covid symptoms before and after the cruise, and at least 75% must undergo a COVID-19 test before disembarking.

With this news, it looks as though cruises from the United States could resume later this summer. For more information on this development, read the article from TravelMole.

TravelAbility Unveils “Herd Accessibility. No Side Effects” Goal for Landing Pages

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Striving for Herd Accessibility in Travel seal.

Introducing TravelAbility’s newest initiative, “Striving For Herd Accessibility in Travel,” a year-long program designed to provide the destination information that people with disabilities need before they decide where to travel. While the ADA legislation of 30 years ago provided a baseline foundation for physical accessibility it didn’t address the overwhelming absence of information infrastructure that is lacking and necessary to help disabled travelers make the right buying decisions.

Since the first TravelAbility Summit in November of 2019, I have been searching for a way to measure our ROI to the industry. I noticed that following the Summit, several attendees added a landing page to their website that showcases the attractions, hotels, museums, zoos, nature trails, and beaches that are accessible in their destination. I realized that tracking the number of accessible landing pages that TravelAbility could influence would be the best way to measure our value. The first step was to learn how many accessible landing pages already existed.

Working with a team of interns we reviewed all 50 state websites and 65 city websites in the US and Canada and were able to identify a total of 45 destinations—16 states and 29 cities—that included a page with content that speaks to the needs of travelers with a disability. The most startling discovery was that the average time it took to find the landing pages was 3.5 minutes. These 45 landing pages, which can be found on the Accessible Destinations tab on our website, are the base from which we plan to scale the list to over 100 North American destinations so disabled travelers will be able to find this information all in one place.

We will amplify the information by making the link available to consumer-facing disability publications, bloggers, influencers, and news sites so that disabled travelers won’t have to spend over three minutes searching each individual site for accessible information.

Add Your Destination: If you have a landing page that showcases accessible options in your destination you can add it to our directory for free, If you would like help creating an accessible landing page just check the box on our form and we will be in touch.

In addition to the Accessible Destinations initiative, here’s a summary of what else we have been working on.

  1. Increased industry awareness through our TAS Insider newsletter, which grew 5x, from 500 readers in December 2018 to 3,300 readers pre-covid. (2450 post-covid due to layoffs).
  2. TravelAbility collaborated with two blind members of our advisory board to create the  “ExplorAble” podcast series where leaders and influencers in the accessible travel space were interviewed.
  3. Recast TravelAbility 2021 into four virtual events (1 hybrid) to make it more affordable.
  4. Introduced the LaunchPad pitchfest, the world’s only showcase for adaptive technology that makes travel easier for people with disabilities. The event was held April 1st and was the first event of TravelAbility 2021 series.
  5. Our website functions as a repository of tools and resources for travel organizations that want to elevate their accessibility for people with disabilities. 
  6. Produced “Picking a Platform” a virtual book that was developed from the recordings of “Parakeet,” a pop-up virtual conference about virtual conferences held last October in collaboration with USAE News. (Password: Chirpchirp)
  7. Assembled an all-star Advisory Board consisting of leaders from the disability community, media, and travel industry.
  8. Destinations International and US Travel have requested TravelAbility to lead accessibility breakout sessions at their annual gatherings. The most recent of which was DI’s: “Adding Accessibility to your ED+I Program” at their annual Marketing Communications Summit on April 29th.
  9. UP YOURS!… a collaboration with forward-thinking DMO’s to up the accessibility of their members and extend a welcoming hand to travelers with disabilities. TravelAbility produces a customized one-hour virtual hackathon for the destination’s partners and stakeholders. All attendees at these sessions will earn a free registration to all remaining TAS virtual events in 2021.