The Intersection of Travel and Disability
When Senator Tammy Duckworth (D, Ill.) pushed for a ruling mandating that airlines report damage done to wheelchairs and assistive devices, disability advocates predicted the monthly numbers would be crushing. And then…the first month predicted that the reporting went public, Duckworth’s chair was on the Department of Transportation’s damaged list. Ok, mistakes happen, but really? Read the full story, here.
photo credit: Flickr/Senate Democrats
Dave Lorenz is Vice President of Travel Michigan based in Lansing. It was Dave who challenged their 2018 Governor’s Conference to submit any new initiatives around accessible travel. One year later, at the 2019 Governor’s Conference on Tourism, his partners submitted 19 new proposals. The goal was to work across state organizations to create attractions and transportation that would be fully accessible to people with disabilities and other needs. Read more about it here. Dave also helped implement the successful Pure Michigan advertising and marketing campaign that has vaulted Michigan into tourism prominence around the nation.
Myron Pincomb, investor and Chairman of the Board of IBCCES (International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards) has 20 years of experience starting, building and leading healthcare and edtech companies. In 1999, Myron founded Educational Tools, Inc. Under Myron’s leadership, it has grown from a small technology start-up to a major player in the digital curriculum for children with special needs. Among his many accomplishments, Myron was appointed by the Board of Governors to lead the Online Learning Taskforce for the state of Florida, which focuses on mapping the future of online learning for Florida’s 12 universities, 28 state colleges, and nearly 4000 K-12 schools.
Read more about IBCCES’s work across the country here and here.
Marc Garcia was named the president and CEO of Visit Mesa in 2012 and in just a few years he’s led the community of Mesa, Arizona, into a new age of tourism. One of his most recent distinctions is helping the firm become the first travel marketing company to become a Certified Autism Center. Read more about their certification process, here. Before arriving in Mesa, he led tourism efforts in Phoenix, including leading the Phoenix bureau’s sales and service efforts for high-profile national events including Super Bowl XLII, NBA All-Star Weekend 2009, WrestleMania XXVI and 2011 MLB All-Star Summer.
TravelAbility Summit has hired a noted presentation coach, Scott Stiefvater, to help presenters at TravelAbility Summit craft their presentations into 15-minute TED-style talks. “Because the Summit will consist of 35 to 40 expert panels, we are investing in a presentation coach who will not only make the conference more interesting but also will contribute to the professional development of our presenters,” said Jake Steinman, TravelAbility’s founder.
Scott (actually known as the anti-presentation coach) will be offering presenters 90 minutes of coaching on both content and delivery. “I am on a mission to free others from the constraints of the old paradigm. My purpose is serving my clients so that they can grow to be the leaders and influencers they want to be,” explains Scott. Learn more about his approach, here.
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Our promise to all who attend? You may arrive well rested, but your head will be exploding with great ideas when you depart! Get all the details, here.
See that happy traveler—the one waving on a beautiful day out on the Banshee? (below) That photo was taken on an adaptive sailing regatta run out of the San Francisco Bay area. It’s one of the many vacation suggestions from the Abilities Expo experts, who have vetted each one to be sure it offers adventures that are wheelchair friendly or accessible in other ways.
To browse the 5 Spots Where Spring Break Really. Feels LIke Spring break, click here. You can also find many more Abilities Expo Vacation picks—from trails to family centers with medical resources on hand—on the site.
For details on the Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors (BAADS), click here.
It took six years to get Sacramento International Airport to agree to what one disabled airport user and many other disability advocates wanted—an emergency plan that included how to evacuate and assist people with disabilities in case of a disaster. A new protocol is finally in place (but don’t count on finding out what the bleeptastic transportation officials were thinking when they approved the original one). The case was settled.
Sacramento airport also wisely decided to give employees training on how to identify and assist disabled people. Finally, Sacramento’s Terminal B has a ‘Plan B’ that is a model of compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).
Need a refresher on what the ADA is? Read the details, here. Read more from the Sacramento Bee, here.
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