TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Airlines

Pssst. Here’s What No One With A Disability May Have Told You (but they wrote it down here)

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young woman in wheelchair v fashionably dressed with leopard jacket outdoor shot
How I Arrived in New York Without My Legs

OUR TAKE: We can never get enough of real stories about real people with lived experience—whether they’re testing a new itinerary, telling the tale of how their wheelchair was lost on a plane trip or explaining how the chairs in a restaurant can keep someone in a wheelchair from enjoying the place. Two of our favorites: Why Are Airline Bathrooms So Crappy? and How I Arrived In New York Without My Legs. These real voices give you a hint of how our work—at the intersection of disability and travel—has the possibility to be incredibly impactful thanks to you.

Delta Promoted Accessibility on Social Media—Here’s What Happened Next

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An (unrelated) ad for Delta highlights that they will be adding more crew members in 2020.

Delta Airlines released a promotional video on social media showing how it “makes the world smaller” for everyone, including children with disabilities. The disability community, however, swiftly called out how Delta and other airlines often make travel harder for people with disabilities, especially wheelchair users, an issue Delta said it is working to resolve. The response from the disability community was 180-degrees from what the company expected. They jumped in the comments section on the video and told their stories—of seeing their wheelchair treated like a sack of potatoes, traveling with a repair kit and being asked to crawl up a flight of stairs to the plane and other difficulties with airline staff. Read the full story here on Yahoo, here.

OUR TAKE: No good deed goes unpunished, even by the disability community.  It’s certainly understandable why disabled travelers who’ve experienced first hand a ruined vacation due to wheelchair damage would jump at the chance to vent at Delta, but it doesn’t seem to be productive in the long run.  Delta’s ad shows that they are trying to find accessible solutions that involve both design and awareness training among their hundreds of airport sub-contractors to improve conditions.  Having to endure this torrent of excoriation may have an unintended effect: Brand risk. If the airlines do nothing, they risk nothing. It is with mixed emotion that we write this. It’s unclear whether marketing folks at Delta ran the ad by a focus group of disabled airplane travelers. If they had, they might have been able to hear their stories and work a note about their long-term approach to change into the messaging.  To learn about some of the positive internal changes Delta has made in hiring and supporting people with disabilities, click here.  “When we had our CEO transition, we really birthed an increased focus on diversity and inclusion,” said Keyra Johnson, Delta’s chief officer of diversity and inclusion (on their site). “We don’t think diversity just happens. We actually believe that you have to work for it and go after it.”

SFO Uses Therapy Pig (and Other Cute Furry Friends) to Reduce Airport Stress

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two women travelers bend down to pet a pig named LiLou while an airline pilot watches and smilesPure joy is not something you come across often in an airport. Flights are delayed, security lines are long, and more often than not travelers are grumpy and stressed, writer Madeline Wells in SFGate. So why all the smiles at San Francisco International Airport? It’s the Wag Brigade, SFO’s very own fleet of volunteer therapy dogs—and one particularly adorable pig. Find a gallery of aww-worthy photos, here.

Our take: Fortunately, the recently issued new regulations clarifying which therapy animals are allowed on flights don’t apply to airports where the stress of delays and cancellations can be overwhelming.

photo courtesy SFGate.com

 

 

 

Let A Travel Pro Design Accessible Itineraries For Your Destination

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meet the TravelAbility itinerary design teamIf you are looking for an accessible itinerary to post on your site or offer as a service to the burgeoning group of travelers who need some accessibility built into their stay, where do you start?

You could go with what comes up on Google (meh) or you could trust five of the most curious, experienced and trustworthy pros in disability tourism (yes!) Imagine: Signed, sealed, delivered, it’s yours to publicize on your website and share through your social media channels.

Niche travel is sold through itineraries that include attractions, tours, and sites that cater to a specific audience,” stated Jake Steinman, founder of TravelAbility Summit. “We brought them together to help destinations add authenticity to their accessible itineraries by having them created by actual travelers with different disabilities who are prominent professionals in the industry.

“Once these itineraries are designed, DMO’s can promote the fact that they were designed by disability travel thought-leaders, all of whom have their own extensive following and can offer cross-promotion opportunities as well as consultation advice.”

Here is some background information on each itinerary design team member.

head shot of Cory Lee smiling wearing t shirt. He has eyeglasses and is sitting in his wheelchairCory Lee Woodard writes a travel blog Curb Free with Cory Lee and recently started his own travel agency. On his blog, full of detailed itineraries from around the globe, his mission is to show readers how, where and why to travel as a person with a disability. If you’ve got questions—what city is the most wheelchair-friendly? to what’s the best way to determine if a hotel has a roll-in shower? Cory Lee has answers.

sid in a black hat and olive green sweater


Sid Marcos is a business developer from San Diego, California. She is the former director of development for Outlandish Travel, where she produced accessible destination guides around fun themes such as pub tours. She is a founding member of the National Startup League and director of an incubator for social entrepreneurs. Learn more on her blog.

sue Slater head shot she has red hair and is smiling wearing a jacket and black topSue Slater, the founder of Presto Magic Travel, is a cruise and groups specialist who will soon be celebrating her 20th year in the travel industry creating accessible itineraries. She’s sent thousands of people on cruises all over the world, including cruise destination weddings. Accessibility is a personal passion and a necessity. Sue is blind and her husband has a chronic disability that requires him to use a wheelchair. Both travel extensively, hence she can find a work-around for pretty much any travel need you might have. Learn more, here.

upper body shot of John wearing a navy jacket and blue shirt sitting inside a plane smiling, wearing glasses John Morris approaches travel from a critical angle—in a good way. His fact-checking and reporting on the latest news in accessible travel is unrivaled. That’s probably because he’s traveling the world an average of 310 days a year as a triple amputee with one hand, a passport and a power wheelchair, writing about his travels and adventures—and asking crucial accessibility questions along the way. Read his blog, wheelchairtravel.org.

All five experts will be on-site at TravelAbility Summit, November 12-13 in San Francisco. The team will be given designated “office hours” at the end of each day to talk with you about creating authentic accessible itineraries

 

New Airline Therapy Dog Guidelines May Not Sit Well with Some

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It’s looA pug stares with a frown into the cameraking like some fuzzy friends will have a tougher time getting on board than they have in past years. The latest guidelines on flying with emotional support animals were announced, covering when and how pets can be transported. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) rules come on the heels of news that airlines and attendants were being overwhelmed by the number of emotional support animals—cats, dogs, bunnies, birds and beyond— being checked in to planes with their owners as emotional support animals. There were also safety concerns. The DOT remains committed to ensuring that our air transportation system is safe and accessible for everyone. Law enforcement’s focus will be on clear violations of the current rule and alleged violations of the Air Carrier Access Act, according to the report.

OUR TAKE: The guidelines clearly recognize the importance of service animals but are stricter on species, breeds, and documentation in advance of flights. (They do not banish pit bulls, but passengers with pigs, peacocks and squirrels should probably plan alternate routes. The rule favors airlines, saying that they have the right to turn away requests or animals if they seem to be of any threat to the public. .Animals can also be deterred if they are too large or too heavy or too small (under four months). The final statement can be found at regulations.gov, docket number DOT-OST-2018-0067.

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