TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

John Morris

Accessible Journeys is the first Travel Magazine for People with Disabilities

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Vancouver, B.C. April 4, 2022 – Melange Magazines and TravelAbility are thrilled to launch Accessible Journeys, a quarterly digital magazine, and resource for people with disabilities and seniors seeking travel experiences. 

Accessible Journeys magazine cover.

The magazine offers tips and guides for travelers with disabilities and seniors to help them plan their journeys. It features niche news, information about emerging accessible products and technology, and verified information about accessible accommodations, restaurants, activities and adventures. Additional content features cover accessible travel and tourism best practices, as well as accessible destinations around the world.

Travel industry stakeholders interested in showcasing their accessible offerings to the disability travel market have been quick to jump onboard. The inaugural issue includes: The world’s first fully accessible hotel, The Schoolhouse Hotel; the first autism-certified city in the U.S., Mesa, Arizona; nudist beaches embracing inclusivity; a call for help from war-torn Ukraine’s disability population.

Perhaps most important, the magazine pays homage to the bloggers and vloggers who have brought accessible travel into the spotlight. These champions share their travel stories, insights and advice on all things travel, to ensure people with disabilities and seniors have safe, comfortable and enjoyable travel experiences.

Accessible Journeys will reach people with disabilities and Baby Boomers through multiple channels:  

  • Joomag platform one the two largest digital newsstands platforms.
  • TravelAbility Insider. Travel industry newsletter
  • www.readmelange.com. The Mélange family of magazines boasts 1.2 million readers in 64 countries   
  • Disability travel bloggers social media shares
  • Travel clubs and related organizations 
  • Accessible travel clubs and networks
  • Disability advocacy organizations

The disability market for travel is expected to triple by 2028, and it’s a market hungry for travel. A recent ODO/Harris Poll found that 12.5 million people with disabilities traveled in 2018/2019, up from 8.5 million in 2014/2015. The aging population is adding to the number of people with disabilities daily. Baby Boomers are the fastest-growing population segment in North America and while most have the time and money to travel more than ever before, they often face physical challenges. The upward trend in travel demand for these populations is clear, and Accessible Journeys will help fill the gaps in accessibility travel information that mainstream media has largely ignored. Editor Ashley Lyn Olson sums it up with, “We are the accessible travelers, and these are our journeys. Come see the world our way, where all are welcome, where all may enter.”

The first issue of Accessible Journeys magazine is available now.

TravelAbility Partners with Visit Myrtle Beach for Pilot Program to Celebrate Disability Holidays

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The Beach is for Every Body logo.

The Beach is a place where everyone can find where they belong – and we mean every body, every ability, every family, every one.

The Myrtle Beach community welcomes thousands of people each year from all walks of life, including those living with autism and sensory processing disorders and their families, and is an inclusive destination for visitors of all abilities. 

Visit Myrtle Beach is partnering with the Champion Autism Network (CAN) and TravelAbility for The Beach is for everyBODY: Sensory-Friendly Pledge. CAN and TravelAbility both work tirelessly to bring awareness to the challenges persons with varying abilities and neurodiverse disabilities face in their day to day lives, especially when traveling. As part of this pilot program, Visit Myrtle Beach is working with local business partners to promote the sensory-friendly pledge. The process is as follows:

  1. Business signs the pledge.
  2. Business is directed to a thank you page on VMB site.
  3. VMB will send an initial email to get their logos and send our sensory-friendly resource page.
  4. VMB connects business to CAN with indication for outreach on offers and training.

The work of VMB to promote best practices for inclusion to its local business partners is a critical step in making a destination accessible to the disability community. Great work!

To learn more, check out VMB’s The Beach is for everyBODY landing page.

Featured Accessible Destinations for March

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Aerial view of Cabo San Lucas, the city and beaches.

Accessible travel is available worldwide, and TravelAbility’s Destinations with Accessibility project is expanding! Our database now includes accessible content for over 125 destinations in the USA, Canada and Mexico. This month, check out the information we’ve collected for destinations across a sample of regions:

The next world region we’ll focus on is the Caribbean Islands, with destinations set to appear in the database soon.

Has your destination created an accessible landing page to welcome disabled travelers? It’s never too late to start!

Product Review Website Features Accessible Product Reviews Written by PWDs, Seniors and Caregivers

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You can find high-quality, detailed product reviews for just about anything – except, perhaps, accessible products targeted at the disability community. The website Reviewed seeks to change that.

Illustrations of various accessible products including wheelchair and scooter.
Credit: Reviewed / Tara Jacoby

The disability community has long been forced to rely on word-of-mouth recommendations, or worse, trial-and-error experiments to achieve that which many people take for granted: mobility, independence, and dignity.

In response to this, Reviewed is working to add new product reviews “led, edited, and written by people who are actually living with these challenges: disabled writers, aging-in-place experts, caregivers, and seniors.” Reviewed recognizes these as the “true experts” and says that “their input is what will make our coverage most useful to the community we aim to serve.”

To read the announcement and new product reviews, see the article from Reviewed.

Ireland Rolls Out the World’s First Disabled Golf Tour

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Golf ball at the edge of a hole.

The European Disabled Golf Association (EDGA), in partnership with The DP World Tour, has launched the newly-named G4D (Golf for the Disabled) Tour, which will feature a minimum of seven tournaments in 2022.

Kipp Popert, the top-ranked player in the World Ranking for Golfers with a Disability, said “The EDGA has been doing amazing work for more than 20 years and this new collaboration with The DP World Tour will create opportunities for more golfers with a disability to showcase their talents and compete on a global stage.”

To learn more about this new disabled golf tour, read the article from the Irish Times.