The Intersection of Travel and Disability
Travel Oregon
An oasis of accessibility in the Pacific Northwest featuring unspeakable natural beauty in a state with an unparalleled commitment to accessibility.
In each issue we feature a different destination partner from the “Destinations with Accessibility” section of our website.
TravelAbility is delighted to announce, “Rethinking Accessibility,” a pilot project to uncover and showcase accessibility information on the websites of participating destinations that are proactively trying to make travel easier for people with disabilities by highlighting what CAN be done instead of what CAN’T be done. This initiative will culminate on May 18, Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
“While the ADA provides some baseline for physical infrastructure such as ramps and grab bars in bathrooms, there’s no ADA for information,” remarked Jake Steinman, founder of TravelAbility. The following members of our Destination Ally Club partners opted into the pilot program designed to uncover a variety of accessibility features that will make them more inclusive to people with disabilities and seniors.
A total of 201 surveys were completed revealing new and interesting accessibility features that will be added to their websites, all of which have a landing page dedicated to accessible content.
Here are just a few examples of unique features from the survey results and links to their accessible content pages.
In Fairfax County, VA: While the Mount Vernon home of George Washington has inaccessible stairs leading to the second floor, they provide iPads that connect to the tour guide leading the tour upstairs.
In Mesa, AZ: Emotional support goats are available at a yoga studio located inside an addiction rehab facility.
In Kissimmee, FL: Local theme park offers wheelchair-accessible Zip Lines descending above alligator habitats.
In Tampa, FL: Visit a children’s museum that holds monthly sensory-friendly events for families and caregivers of children on the autism spectrum.
In Lancaster, PA: the Dutch Wonders theme park offers 35 rides that are fully accessible.
These landing pages will be aggregated as part of Travelability’s “Destinations with Accessibility” project, which currently contains accessibility content for 143 destinations in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean islands.
Outcomes for the “Rethinking Accessibility” project will become part of a series of case studies that will be featured at TravelAbility’s Emerging Markets Summit, August 18-20, 2023, in Savannah. “According to the World Health Organization, 15% of the population lives with some form of disability,” commented Steinman. “Travel is the toy department of life, and everyone should be able to enjoy it.”
Contact: TravelAbility: Jake@travelability.net
The Ministry of Social Solidarity has started issuing coloured integrated services cards for people with disabilities as the government moves to ensure adequate accessibilty to more people with special needs in public life.
Egypt aims to include 2.7 million persons with severe disabilities in its nationwide integrated services card system by the end of 2023.
There are 12 million persons with various disabilities in Egypt out of a population of 104 million, according to the United Nations Development Program. Read more.
Our Takeaway: Egypt’s constitution is quite enlightened when it comes to caring for their disabled population. The color-coded system—blue= severe disability, green moderate disability and purples=mild disability—is admirable on its surface but may cause a wave of people inflating their disability status to maximize their benefits.
Let no one say that greed is a good reason for stepping up to accommodate people with disabilities at their conferences and meetings. And yet, association meeting planners who aren’t going out of their way to make their events accessible to all prospective attendees may be leaving money on the table.
While the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has been the law of the land since 1990, true accessibility continues to challenge disabled people from all walks of life. This includes not just those using wheelchairs for mobility, but also less obvious physical impairments, such as arthritis, cognition, and sight and hearing disabilities. But disability experts say that, increasingly, some destinations are going above and beyond ADA requirements to become more welcoming — and they’re using it to attract meeting and convention business.
At the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis recently, an attendee with a severe peanut allergy reached out asking for help in finding seating at an event. The guest services staff identified a location that was as far as possible from food vendors utilizing peanut products. Another attendee had an allergy to latex, and the facility worked with vendors to ensure the guest would not be served by someone wearing latex gloves and reviewed the environment to ensure that they would not be sitting in an area that might have items containing latex. Read more.
Our Takeaway: Meeting planners are reluctantly embracing accessibility as major corporations have begun to include accessibility, sustainability and DEI services and sensitivity in the RFPs. Any company that applies for government contracts or subcontracts are required to have at least 7 percent of their workforce self-identify as having a disability. Since the pandemic, there has been a 50% increase in hiring people with disabilities.
Over 6,000 people have signed a petition for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to require airline accommodations for “plus-size travelers,” such as extra free seats and priority boarding.
The petition demands that the FAA require all airlines to implement a clear “customer-of-size policy,” grant extra free seats, provide priority boarding, and offer seatbelt extenders for “plus-size” passengers. The petition further demands “sensitivity training” for TSA employees and “accessible screening equipment” to treat “plus-size travelers” with “respect and dignity.” The Department of Transportation issued the “Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights” in 2022, listing the first as “The Right to Be Treated with Dignity and Respect. Read more.
Our Takeaway: Plus-size travelers often experience the same degradation that people with disabilities suffer when exposed to the public. While this petition is the opening salvo in a battle for respect and dignity when they travel, they may have trouble convincing miserly airline pencil pushers to give up a free seat for extra side room.
You must be logged in to post a comment.