TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Accessibility Playbook

Practical Hacks from the Accessibility Playbook: How to Communicate with and to People with Disabilities

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Disability language isn’t one-size-fits-all — learn how to honor individual preferences and communicate with respect.

Part of what makes communicating about disabilities challenging is that people with disabilities are not a homogenous group. A good practice is to ask how someone prefers to describe themselves and, if you inadvertently offend someone with your language, apologize and ask them to share with you their preferred language. There are generally two ways to approach this: person-first or identity-first. Neither is right or wrong; we should simply honor an individual’s preference.

Person-first language: Person-first language emphasizes the person first — their individuality,

their complexity, their humanness and their equality. 

Example: Use “a person with epilepsy” instead of “an epileptic” and “people with disabilities” instead of “the disabled”. 

Identity-first language: Identity-first language emphasizes that the disability plays a role in who the person is and reinforces disability as a positive cultural identifier. 

Example: Use “disabled person” instead of “person with disabilities” and “autistic person” instead of “a person with autism.”

Practical Hacks From the Accessibility Playbook: Auditory Disabilities

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Seven years in the making, the Travelability Accessibility Playbook, created in partnership with Destinations International, is an end-to-end toolkit to equip destination organizations on their accessibility journey, enabling them to better welcome and accommodate people with disabilities within their destination. 

Deafness and being hard of hearing are both conditions that affect a person’s ability to hear.

Deafness: 

Deafness refers to a profound hearing loss that may render a person unable to hear sounds at all or only able to perceive very loud noises. Individuals who are deaf typically rely on alternative forms of communication, such as sign language, lip-reading, or written communication to interact with others and navigate the world around them.

Hard of Hearing: 

Being hard of hearing (HoH) refers to having a partial hearing loss, where a person may have difficulty hearing certain sounds or frequencies but can still perceive sound to some extent.  Individuals who are hard of hearing may rely on hearing aids, assistive listening devices, or other accommodations to improve their ability to hear speech and other sounds. Hard of hearing individuals often use spoken language as their primary mode of communication.

A WARM WELCOME

• Get Their Attention: Before speaking make sure you have their attention. Do this by waving your hand, tapping them gently on the shoulder, or making eye contact.

• Communicate Clearly: Speak clearly and at a moderate pace but avoid shouting and covering your mouth as it can distort lip movement. Use natural facial expressions and gestures to enhance communication and avoid exaggeration.

• Respect Their Communication Preferences: Respect the individual’s preferred communication method, whether it’s sign language, lip-reading, written communication, or a combination of methods. If you’re unsure, ask them how they prefer to communicate. Do not assume the individual reads lips.

• Provide Accommodations: Provide accommodations such as written materials, visual aids, or assistive listening devices to facilitate communication and ensure inclusivity.

• Address the Person Directly: Don’t speak to interpreters, companions, or caregivers instead of directly addressing the deaf or HoH individual.

Practical Hacks From the Accessibility Playbook

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Seven years in the making, the Travelability Accessibility Playbook, created in partnership with Destinations International, is an end-to-end toolkit to equip destination organizations on their accessibility journey, enabling them to better welcome and accommodate people with disabilities within their destination. 

NEUROCOGNITIVE DISABILITIES 

Neurodivergence describes individuals  whose neurological development  and functioning differ from what is typically considered “normal” or “neurotypical.”  This includes people with conditions such as  autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit  hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, dyspraxia,  Tourette syndrome, PTSD, and more.  

Being neurodivergent is not a deficit but rather reflects natural variations in human neurological  development. They may face challenges in social  communication, sensory processing, executive  function, and emotional regulation. Individuals  with PTSD often have heightened or altered  sensory processing. Everyday stimuli like loud  noises, bright lights, crowds or unexpected touch  can be perceived as threats, triggering a fight,  flight or freeze response. Environments that are too stimulating or unpredictable can become overwhelming very quickly. 

Eight Myths about Autism  

by Peter Wharmby 

1. Autistic people don’t feel empathy.  The majority of us feel enormous amounts  of empathy, even for non-living things, and  especially for animals. 

2. Autistic people can’t make eye contact.  Some of us don’t seem to mind it at all, whilst  the many of us who hate it can force ourselves to when we feel it’s necessary. 

3. Autistic males are far more common  than autistic females. The ratio is rapidly shifting to being more balanced as diagnostic  understanding improves.  

4. Autistic people don’t have a sense of  humor. I mean, some of us don’t, and some of us have what may be seen as a ‘different’ sense of  humor, but there are a lot of funny autistic people out there, including those who do comedy professionally. 

5. Autistic people have learning disabilities.  In fact a surprisingly low percentage of autistic  people have co-occurring learning disabilities. However, people with learning disabilities are  much more likely to be autistic too. 

6. Autistic people are all antisocial. Many of  us may be asocial from trauma associated with  social interaction, but it seems many of us are  quite gregarious and even extroverted.  

7. Autistic people are all STEM subject  specialists. Though plenty are, there are many  of us who have skills, jobs and qualifications in  the humanities, arts and other fields. 

8. Autistic people are all super-gifted in  some way. Though some of us might be  skilled in certain areas, and some of us might  have excellent memories, plenty of us are  perfectly average.  

A WARM WELCOME 

• Respect Individual Differences: Recognize that neurodivergent individuals have  diverse experiences, strengths, and challenges.  

• Listen and Validate: Listen attentively to  the person’s perspectives, experiences, and  preferences.  

• Respect Interests: Respect the individual’s  personal space, boundaries, and ways of  interacting. Ask for consent before initiating  physical contact or offering assistance and  respect their right to decline if they are not  comfortable. Do not pressure the individual  to conform to neurotypical norms such as eye  contact and hand shaking