TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

John Morris

TravelAbility Board Member Sylvia Longmire Models During Runway of Dreams “Drive-In” Fashion Show

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Woman in wheelchair on stage wearing shirt and pants. Red sign behind stage says a fashion revolution.

The Runway of Dreams Foundation hosted a one-of-a-kind drive-in adaptive fashion show on March 9, 2021, at the Carpool Cinema Wynwood in Miami, Florida.

The outdoor drive-in fashion show featured adaptive apparel from presenting sponsor Kohl’s, and other sponsors including Zappos Adaptive, Stride Rite and Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive. The event aimed to expand the reach of adaptive clothing in the mainstream fashion industry and represent true inclusion of people with disabilities.

Sylvia Longmire, founder of Spin the Globe travel agency and blog, as well as the author of Wheelchair Accessible Cruising, can be seen at 57 seconds into this news report wearing Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive clothing.

For more information on the Runway of Dreams Foundation, click here.

World’s First All-Rooms-Accessible Hotel to Open in West Virginia on New Year’s Day 2022

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Rendering of a hotel exterior.

On January 1, 2022, a new boutique hotel will open in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia featuring 28 guest rooms and two suites. Built inside of what was an abandoned schoolhouse building, it will be named – perhaps unsurprisingly and as a tribute to its past – The Schoolhouse Hotel.

The project is being financed by The Disability Opportunity Fund (DOF), a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). By investing in small businesses, affordable housing and commercial real estate projects, CDFIs generate job growth in struggling communities across the United States.

The City of White Sulphur Springs is a community that has faced particular difficulty in recent decades. In 1993, following the coal industry’s departure from the area and the subsequent population decline, the city’s high school was forced to close its doors. And in 2016, a major flood destroyed homes and businesses and took the lives of 14 people in less than an hour. Many businesses, already struggling due to a weakened local economy, never reopened.

Charles Hammerman, CEO of the Disability Opportunity Fund, said that White Sulphur Springs came to his attention after two area moms called his office, searching for work opportunities for their disabled children. Now, more than 25 years after the city’s school shut down, Hammerman’s DOF is making a substantial investment in the community. The school-turned-hotel will employ up to 40 people, providing the city with an opportunity to benefit from increased tourism.

In keeping with its focus on the disability market, DOF has committed to making The Schoolhouse Hotel fully accessible. When it opens next year, it will be the world’s first hotel where every room is adapted for use by disabled people. Full accessibility, universal design and an accessible booking experience that matches customers to the room that will best meet their needs are priorities that DOF hopes to normalize, and Hammerman said that he hopes his hotel will serve as an example for the lodging industry.

To learn more about The Schoolhouse Hotel, click here.

An IKEA IDEA: “ThisAbles” Furniture Adaptors Available at a 3D Printer Near You

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Mass market furniture pieces have long been inaccessible to many disabled people, who have had to purchase specially adapted furniture styles at a significant price premium. Swedish furniture maker IKEA is seeking to change that with ThisAbles — a series of downloadable, 3D printed adaptations that are available free of charge.

IKEA’s ThisAbles product adaptors can be downloaded and printed using 3D printers, then installed to improve the accessibility and usability of IKEA’s furniture products. In recognition of the program’s innovation, ThisAbles won the Grand Prix for Health and Wellness at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.

OUR TAKE: Innovative tools like ThisAbles can generate accessibility at low cost, making accommodations for disabled people much easier to implement. IKEA’s approach to solving for accessibility is an example of innovation at work – an example that should be followed by other companies looking to expand their products’ utility.

This story Sponsored by Designsensory: See our innovations during Covid-19 here.

TravelAbility Revises Its Vision and Purpose

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The TravelAbility team and the Advisory Board recently met to discuss what the organization has accomplished and a vision for the future. The result of our conversations is a revised mission statement.

TravelAbility Summit logo.

Our Vision is to become a prominent thought leader in accessible travel to improve the lives of people at ALL abilities and ALL ages.

Our Purpose is to inspire and educate the travel industry to provide accessible experiences to help people with disabilities enjoy travel as much as everyone else.

Our Goals are to help travel organizations:

  1. Easily incorporate Accessibility into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion initiatives.
  2. Change the perception of people with disabilities from that of a compliance headache to an advanced form of guest service.
  3. Promote the bottom-line benefits of accessibility to businesses. For example, baby boomers are a high-spending group who hopes to travel, and accessible travel will attract boomers with assistance needs.

Our history and successes to date

Since we launched TravelAbility in 2019, we’ve been busy. Our first conference was in 2019, and we’ve grown exponentially since then. Check out:

  • Over 3,000 readers of the TravelAbility Insider newsletter.
  • The “Explorable” podcast series, in collaboration with Design Sensory, is up to 9 episodes.
  • Our accessible landing page initiative will launch with 41 destinations.
  • LaunchPad, the world’s only pitchfest that showcases adaptive technology and innovations designed to ease the impact of barriers during the travel experience.
  • Our website has been revamped as an online ecosystem that aggregates all the resources in one place that can help any travel organization become more accessible.

Germany May Be the Most Accessible Destination in Europe… or the Planet

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Greetings from Berlin, Germany postcard.

Although Europe’s borders remain closed to much of the world, Germany is prepared to capitalize on the post-pandemic accessible travel boom.

Writers Barbara and Jim Twardowski, in an article for the Abilities Buzz, stated that the country “is diligently working to make Germany a place where everyone can travel with ease and without barriers.”

The country has invested in a program to assess the accessibility of businesses, collecting the data in a centralized accessible tourism database. Local and regional tourism boards have also made investments in accessibility and tourism guides for disabled visitors, including Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich, among others.

OUR TAKE: As the disability community is vaccinated and begins to plan their vacations for 2021 and 2022, destinations that have done the work to welcome them are likely to see an increase in travelers with accessibility needs. Germany’s long history of investment in accessible travel will aid in their recovery.

To read more about how Germany is preparing to welcome disabled travelers, click here.