TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Accessible Landing Pages

Rethinking Accessibility Project Honors Global Accessibility Awareness Day

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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

New Study Shows Accessible Websites Enhance SEO by 12%

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the letters SEO on a blue background

Many have asked the question: Does website accessibility positively impact SEO?  To date, there have been no conclusive answers. To see what impact, if any, accessibility has on SEO, the team at AccessibilityChecker.org, which developed an accessibility audit tool, conducted the study. They checked organic traffic to a series of websites before and after the sites were remediated for accessibility. The upshot:

“We found that, on average, the websites in the sample group had a 12% increase in organic search results most likely to be attributed to the change in the website layout following the accessibility remediation.”

Our Takeaway:  Back in 2010, Google announced that websites that were not mobile-friendly would receive reduced organic traffic, which created the concept of responsive design in which the website is coded for both desktop and mobile at the outset. We hope this study will do the same for website accessibility as businesses have a business case to justify the expense. Read More.

Travelability.net Now Includes 140+ Accessible Landing Pages (Including 11 Caribbean Islands) To “Destinations with Accessibility” Microsite

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TravelAbility’s “Destinations with Accessibility” initiative continues to expand the search for accessible destinations and the inclusion of their landing pages on its microsite. The team is excited to announce the addition of 11 popular Caribbean islands allowing travelers with disabilities to find things they can do in 140+ destinations all on one site.

About Destinations with Accessibility: While the ADA provides a baseline for physical infrastructure for people with disabilities there is no ADA for information.  Our research team found that it took an average of 3.5 minutes to drill down on travel websites to find content about the accessibility features of the destination. By aggregating this information all in one place the team has made travel planning for people with disabilities that much easier. Visit the Destinations with Accessibility microsite.

Visit Lauderdale Launches Accessibility Microsite

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Visit Lauderdale logo with tagline everything under the sun.

Visit Lauderdale launched its new VisitLauderdale.com destination website that includes an accessibility microsite in recognition of the tourism bureau’s new focus on accessible travel as part of its well-established inclusion commitment.

“Accessible tourism is not only about human rights, but also an opportunity to embrace and educate all visitors,” said Richard Gray, Visit Lauderdale’s SVP of Inclusion & Accessibility. “We embrace all visitors with wide open, welcoming arms and we are dedicated to increasing awareness of accessibility features throughout the destination.”

Greater Fort Lauderdale hotels, restaurants and attractions create a welcoming space for every guest. Many provide accessible amenities including accessible rooms – some specially equipped for the hearing-impaired – as well as wheelchair ramps, accessible outdoor dining spaces including spacious outdoor patios, special sensory-inclusive websites, and sensory-sensitive live performances such as those at Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

Area resources listed on the site including include information on where to find wheelchair accessible beaches, and to the Fort Lauderdale-based Special Needs Group, which provides a wide range of equipment including rentals of wheelchairs, scooter, audio and visual aid necessities and other essentials. Equipment is delivered directly to cruise ship staterooms at Port Everglades, hotels, attractions, or the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center.

To learn more about accessibility in the Fort Lauderdale area, see Visit Lauderdale’s new accessibility microsite.

Why Are Many Tourism Boards and CVBs Lagging on Accessible Travel?

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Grayscale image of older woman in wheelchair peering over a river running through a city.

Dawn Barclay, in an article for The Insider Travel Report, conducted her own research, visiting the tourist board websites of some of the country’s most populated cities as well as most popular tourism destinations. Her goal was to understand the extent to which these organizations are providing information to the populations who most need it — namely, disabled travelers.

She wrote, “Considering that the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990 and we are now 31 years into it, you would think that every tourist board and CVB site would have at least a page dedicated to Accessible or Wheelchair or Special Needs Travel, especially since this is a growing and lucrative market. But they don’t and here’s why.”

To learn why tourism boards are lagging in the push for accessible travel, read the full article from Insider Travel Report.