TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Accessibility

Disability Opportunity Fund Awards $250,000 in their own Shark Tank

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Group of 13 people posing with an oversized check bearing the Maidenbaum logo and standing in front of a Maidenbaum backdrop

Long Islanders typically cringe at the mention of sharks, but eight companies serving the disability community were thrilled to enter the Shark Tank in Garden City last month organized by the Disability Opportunity Fund (DOF). The fund gave out $250,000 during the pitch fest to support product development and job creation benefiting individuals with disabilities. First prize of $50,000 went to Valence Variations, which has developed an AI-powered app that can read and interpret a speaker’s emotions.

“Thank you so much to the Disability Opportunity Fund for this opportunity,” said Valence Vibrations Co-Founder and CEO Chloe Duckworth. “This capital is going to accelerate our growth to be able to support more neurodiverse people and help in building digital accessibility.”

The Shark Tank competition was part of the DOFs (DOF) 15th anniversary celebration. The evening also included a major funding announcement from the Maidenbaum Property Tax Reduction Group, which together with DOF awarded $75,000 in grants to 15 Long Island nonprofit organizations that support people with disabilities. Each organization received a $5,000 grant to continue and expand on their work. Read more.

TravelAbility TakeAway: Are Shark Tank competitions taking a bite out of the traditional phone book-sized grant proposal? (By the way, what’s a phone book?) That could be a welcome trend in the industry, particularly for the extroverts out there who make it look easy. Don’t be fooled: Pitching to an audience is still a lot of work and a lot of pressure.

Hidden Camera Investigative Report on Traveling with a Disability

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A woman in a wheelchair with an unattached oxygen tube on her shoulder, looking into the camera with a concerned expression

Sylvia Longmire’s trip on Greyhound went fairly smoothly in part because the accessible bus had removable seats so that Longmire could remain in her own wheelchair (see related story in this issue). That’s not an option on airplanes, which can create a whole set of problems for passengers who use wheelchairs.

CBC News of Canada provides a powerful first-person view of the experience by using a hidden camera while accompanying Alessia Di Virgilio on an Air Canada flight. The trouble started several days before the flight when Di Virgilio notified the airline of her booking, as required. Despite the advanced notice, Di Virgilio did not receive a confirmation of her reservation until 24 hours before the flight. And when she arrived at the airport in her power wheelchair, no one at the gate had been alerted so it took 40 minutes for a crew to arrive to transfer her to an airline seat. The transfer is painful to watch as the ventilator becomes disconnected, a lift falls on her head, and her foot gets stuck. Meanwhile, her wheelchair is sitting out in the rain.

One crew member explains that he hasn’t been trained on the lift equipment for more than seven years.

“I did not feel safe,” Alessia Di Virgilio said after the incident.

The Air Canada flight is the centerpiece of a CBC expose of traveling with a disability. Other segments feature a woman with narcolepsy who is repeatedly turned down by taxis and rideshare drivers because of her large service dog—despite company policies that guarantee accommodating service animals. The third segment tracks the journey of a blind man trying to navigate the transit system. It’s a risky proposition with a lack of audio assistance in key spots, like trying to find the door of a subway car with the clock ticking.

The report has triggered a federal government investigation. Read more.

Watch the 22-minute video

TravelAbility TakeAway: It’s no surprise that this unprecedented investigation by CBC has launched a federal investigation in Canada. The video is hard to watch as we witness some of the indignities and injuries Alessia Di Virgilio had to endure. The physical and emotional pain of her airline trip is evident on her face as she moves from frustration to anger and fear to deep sadness. Deep appreciation and admiration to CBC and its hidden camera for putting us right there beside her—and to the other two travelers as well.  

How to Ride the Greyhound Bus as a Wheelchair User

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Greyhound logo beside an image of a bus employee operating a wheelchair lift connected to a bus

Award-winning travel blogger Sylvia Longmire has put a whole lot of miles on her electric wheelchair. She has visited 57 countries, 48 of those as a wheelchair user and 34 of those by herself. Along the way she has written four books and launched a consulting business.

For her latest adventure, she decided to leave the driving to Greyhound on a trip from Minneapolis to Fargo, North Dakota—her 50th state. Longmire shares her experience from the booking of a ticket on an accessible bus (accessible except for the bathroom) to tracking the on-time performance of each leg of the journey to assessing the pros and cons. Pictures included. Read more.

TravelAbility TakeAway: Longmire’s account of her Greyhound trip doesn’t make bus travel look easy but she does make it look doable in a wheelchair. And preferable in some important ways to the alternatives. One of the surprises of her trip was the on-time performance of the buses she took. That hasn’t typically been our experience.

Make Your Parades More Accessible with a “Sensory Block”

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Woman standing near home plate of a baseball field, smiling into the camera

In her 15 years working for the Midlands Michigan Parks and Recreation, Marcie Post has left her mark all over the city. And that mark has been an A for Accessibility as the first priority.

Post serves on several boards and advocates for inclusion at every turn. Last year she led the construction of Miracle Field, a soft-surfaced baseball diamond for athletes with disabilities. And when she was recently offered the role of Grand Marshal of the Midland Santa Parade, she saw it as more than a ceremonial role. She introduced the idea of a sensory-free zone along the parade route.

“We’re asking the people in the parade to not play their instrument or not flash their lights or not honk their horns for one block, totally doable,” says Post. “By doing that, it now creates that inclusive environment. It’s a no-brainer.”

The parade organizers, Nicki and Steve Smith, said they selected Post as grand marshal because of her dedication to the community and her leadership on inclusion.

“She is a wonderful asset to the community,” Nicki said. “She saw a need and she acted on it. And she brought others along with her.” Read more.

TravelAbility TakeAway: It’s wonderful to see champions of accessibility recognized for their contributions to the community. And rather than simply accepting the honorary role of parade grand marshal, Marcie Post saw it as another opportunity to make life a little more enjoyable and equitable for individuals with disabilities.

Supreme Court Likely to Delay Ruling on ADA Requirements for Hotel Websites

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But the Issue Isn’t Going Away So Be Prepared!

View of the Supreme Court building from the outside

In a surprising twist in a case we’ve been following closely, disability rights activist Deborah Laufer withdrew her complaint against a small hotel that she charged had failed to meet ADA disclosure standards on its website. Since she filed her lawsuit, the hotel has been sold and new owners have posted the required information. And Laufer has said she doesn’t plan to add to the 600+ lawsuits she has filed against hotels.

That led several justices to declare the case moot at oral arguments.

“The case before us is dead as a door nail,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. declared.

“This is like dead, dead, dead, in all the ways something can be dead,” Justice Elena Kagan followed.

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined the chorus with Jackson asking the lawyer for the hotel why he was “asking us to take on extra work to end a case when we’ve all agreed it has to be ended.”

The attorney argued that there is an important legal issue at the heart of the case: Do “testers” who are examining websites of hotels they have no intention of staying at have standing to file a lawsuit?

Chief Justice John Roberts was the lone voice from the bench urging his colleagues to decide the issue now rather than kicking the can down the road. Read more.

TravelAbility TakeAway: Destinations may want to share this with their hotel GM’s and get ahead of this issue before they are forced to. We agree with Justice Roberts that the issue isn’t going away. Better to have some of the required specifics up on your site and add to it over time than not to have anything up.

And it shouldn’t be that hard. All GM’s need to do is provide a separate landing page listing the same accessibility features they have on their room descriptions along with room and bathroom images in their photo galleries. It’s really about good customer service, so that guests with disabled family members don’t have to be detectives to see if it fits their needs. Here’s a best practice example from a hotel in San Francisco, who told us that the landing page saves an immeasurable amount of time and training of front desk staff. It’s much easier and quicker to have a reference page to point vs. fielding a lot of questions. 

Addendum: On December 5th, the Supreme Court announced that it will not decide who wins this case because it is moot due to the plaintiff’s withdrawal of the case.  The declaration may be a win for disability rights law, and for broader civil rights law, as a decision in the case could have put an end to “tester standing,” an important way civil rights laws are enforced in this country. But the issue will certainly loop back around the court system.

All nine justices agreed that the case was moot and should not be decided. Seven of the justices agreed that the lower court’s decision is also moot. One justice (Ketanji Brown Jackson) thought the lower court decision (in favor of the disabled plaintiff) should remain on the books.

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