TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

John Morris

In Honor of International Day of Persons With Disabilities, These Dancers Make Disability Visible in 30 Countries at Once

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Heidi Latsky Dance Company in “On Display” at New York City Hall in 2017. The performers pose in stillness or move between poses very slowly. “The longer they’re still, the more you can see,” Ms. Latsky says. Credit: Beowulf Sheehan/The New York Times

“On Display” is a performance art exhibition comprised of a gaggle of individuals who pose in stillness, with their eyes open, or who transfer between poses very slowly, with their eyes closed. The performers move through these poses for hours, courtesy of Heidi Latsky Dance, a diverse dance company featuring many bodies with different forms of disability. The mission started in 2015 as “guerrilla artwork” in Times Square, meant to honor the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

That first iteration went so nicely that Ms. Latsky and her friend Kelly Drummond Cawthon, the artistic director of a Tasmanian ensemble that trains and employs both disabled and nondisabled artists, decided to recreate the performance on a particular date in many places at once. That date December 3rd, is the United Nations’ International Day of Persons With Disabilities, which is celebrated annually.

Since then, the artistic performance has spread from New York and Australia to dozens of other places around the world. This year, due to the special challenges related to Covid-19, the performances are going virtual with a 24-hour Zoom gathering on Thursday, December 3. Performers from more than 30 countries will be grouped by geography into segments lasting up to 2 hours each. Log-on at 12 a.m. Eastern time, and it’s a window to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Join later, and the digital view would possibly open to Amsterdam, Iran or some other place.

OUR TAKE: This is an incredible example of not only how far the art of dance is capable of pushing the envelope to highlight inclusivity, but also of the profound advancement of the awareness of the capability of disabled people. That truth — that disabled people can contribute to society in many ways, including performance art — is boring its way into the mainstream.

To read the full story in The New York Times, click here.

How Soon Will People with Disability Return to Travel Post-Covid… And where will they go?

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Wheelchair user at a picnic table outdoors.

As the global pandemic grinds on, many people with disabilities dream of traveling near or far as a break from the monotony of isolation. But whether it’s a trip to the river or across the Atlantic Ocean, a vacation week away or a day excursion, everyone has big questions — logistical, physical, emotional and ethical. When will it be OK to travel? Is it safe to hop on a plane? Safer to board a train? Is a cruise something to consider or to be avoided? With so much uncertainty, is travel even worth the risk?   

OUR TAKE: This article, courtesy of New Mobility magazine, provides insights from a cross section of wheelchair travel thought leaders about their tolerance for risk and when they expect to hit the road again.  Not surprisingly, their concerns reflect similar opinions of Baby Boomers—it’s domestic road travel until there is a proven vaccine.

To read the full article, click here.

We Examined 122 DMO Websites in Search of Accessible Landing Pages: This is what we found.

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“Lack of Information.” That was the unanimous answer to the question, “What is the greatest barrier to travel when planning a trip?”–by a panel of disability travel experts and travel agents at the first annual TravelAbility Summit in San Francisco in 2019.

Last month we announced “Advancing Accessibility One Landing Page at a Time” – a new initiative that will provide visitors as well as locals–15% of whom, statistically, are living with a disability–with an easy way to find the information they need.

To begin the initiative our team conducted a research survey of 122 Canadian and US destination websites and found that only 40 of them included an accessible landing page. 

What we learned from researching 122 DMO Websites for Accessibility

Our team visited 12 Canadian province and 50 state websites and 60 CVB websites and found the following:

  • Hard to find: While many destinations featured landing pages prominently for other niches (i.e. LGBTQ, families, etc), accessible landing pages were much harder to find. In most cases, accessible travel information was buried three to four clicks down, taking an average of three minutes to find. It’s safe to assume that no one with a disability will endure that type of user experience.
  • Inconsistent placement. For those that did include an Accessible landing page, there was no consistent pattern as to where it should be featured.  Some categories we found them in were: “Things to Do,” “Plan Your Trip” “Transportation and maps” “Order your visitor guide”  or under “Accessibility” along the footer.
  • Uncertainty as to what information should be provided. From the quantity of information and the content they were featuring, our sense was that there is confusion on the part of website content directors as to what should be included. The best sites featured the following:
    • Direct links to the landing page containing accessible services and experiences, including hotels, attractions, museums and tour providers
    • Accessible airport transportation + vehicle rentals, with information about the accessibility of public transportation
    • Accessible resources: i.e. travel agents, sign language, mobility equipment rentals
    • Testimonials from visitors (or locals) with a variety of disabilities
    • Link to a “How can we make this page better” user feedback form. (see this one from Visit North Carolina that goes directly to the website content department).
  • Technical compliance. We ran all the state websites through the WAVE web access evaluation tool and found that only 12 states/provinces could be deemed fully  compliant. This may be due to the ambiguities in the way WCAG rules for businesses that do not directly sell to consumers online are interpreted. It does make sense to make the content about accessibility available to those to whom it is targeted.

Of the 50 state and 12 Canadian province websites, we found accessible landing pages (and links) for the following:

Arizona

Colorado

Connecticut

Visit Florida

Hawaii

Illinois

Maine

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

New York 

North Carolina

Oregon

Utah

Travel Ontario

British Columbia

Of the 60 cities that we reviewed, including all major gateway cities and others that attended TravelAbility Summit, we were able to identify 23 landing pages.

Chicago, IL

Denver, CO

Dutchess County, NY

Eugene, OR

Ft. Myers-Sanibel, FL

Indianapolis, IN

Jackson County, NC

Kansas City, MO

Lansing, MI

Los Angeles, CA

Mesa, AZ

Minneapolis, MN

Montreal, QB

New Orleans, LA

New York City, NY

Oakland, CA

Philadelphia, PA

San Diego, CA

Seattle, WA

Springfield, IL

St. Louis, MO

Valley Forge, PA

Vancouver, BC

Washington, DC

About one-third of the CVB and DMO websites we reviewed had an accessible landing page. This is a missed opportunity for attracting new visitors with disabilities, who are looking for destinations that extend an open hand by providing clear information about accessibility and the possibilities that do exist.

Will your organization work to fill the information gap? Contact us at info@travelabilitysummit.com if you need assistance.

3 Digital Experience Whizzes Deliberate the Future of Inclusive Design

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Wheelchair user at desk using computer to communicate with someone.

We live in a digital world, and a lack of accessibility in the websites, apps and digital products we use can cause many people to be left out.

A recent discussion hosted by digital design company InVision can help us all understand what designing for accessibility looks like in the digital world and why it is important for companies to do so in the future. Participants in this InVision Talk include Jake Abma (accessibility lead at ING, UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ambassador, and Accessibility Guidelines Working Group member), Tom Smith (design lead at Aviva), and Soren Hamby (InVision’s design advocate, who is completing their masters in UX with a focus on diversity, inclusion, and accessibility).

To watch the talk and learn more about digital accessibility and design, click here.

Will This Be the Most Accessible Airport in America?

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Mockup of new Kansas City International Airport terminal.

The Kansas City International Airport is building a new terminal facility, and it will feature significant accessibility improvements for travelers with disabilities.

Justin Meyer, the airport’s deputy director of aviation, told KMBC News that he wants the new terminal “to be one that equips future travelers to be able to see the world.” Features of the new terminal, which is set to open in March 2023, will include an all-inclusive play area for children and families with special needs, service animal relief areas, nursing rooms and adult changing tables in bathroom facilities.

OUR TAKE: New construction is an opportunity to embrace universal design, creating spaces that are accessible to everyone. It appears as though the Kansas City Airport will be one of those places, installing accommodations designed for a profoundly expansive range of disabilities.

To read the full story, click here.