TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Disability Advocates

TravelAbility 2019 Insiders ‘On the Move’ In 2020

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Here’s what our fabulous 2019 attendees and Advisory Board Members have been up to since we last met in San Francisco.
Congratulations to….

Josh Loebner headshot

…Josh Loebner, Director of Strategy for DesignSensory, for partnering with TravelAbility Summit on the launch of a new podcast series, ExplorAble.

upper body shot of John wearing a navy jacket and blue shirt sitting inside a plane smiling, wearing glasses

…John Morris on launching his new Wheelchair Travel podcast series. This is in addition to his weekly reporting on travel issues, accessibility and COVID-19.

...Sylvia Longmire for winning first prize at the Indie Book Awards for her recently released travel guide: Everything You Need to Know About Wheelchair Travel.

headshot of ed Harris with suit and red tie smiling brown hair brown eyes

 …Ed Harris, who was Chief Marketing Officer for Valley Forge CVB when he presented at TAS 2019, on his appointment to President and CEO of Discover Lancaster.

…Julie Jones on her video interview with Tapooz Travel’s Lauren Roffe. 

headshot Cory lee in teeshirt smiling

…Cory Lee Woodard for the launch of a Facebook series of interviews with destinations from Rochester, NY to Tempe, Az, and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

 …Sara Emmert, Director of Tourism Policy for New York’s state tourism office who was among the five New Yorkers that attended TAS 2019, on the launch of their new I LOVE NY accessibility landing page. 

…Kathryn Inglin, TAS attendee and marketing strategy and communications executive for the Presidio Trust in San Francisco, for upgrading their accessibility offerings and becoming the first park in the U.S. to achieve the international Green Flag Award, which recognizes the highest standards of management, maintenance and development in the public parks and green spaces sector around the world.

…Eric Lipp, founder of Open Doors Organization, on the release of their new ODO/Harris Interactive, a study of travel by Americans with disabilities. A summary will debut at virtual TAS 2020. 

…Myron Pincomb, Board Chairman of IBCCES, on the launch of the IBCCES Teletherapy Certification program insuring the individuals and students with special needs have the support they need during the Covid-19 epidemic. 

5 Accessible Design Changes Most DMOs Don’t Think About (but should)

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group of adults some using a wheelchair some using a cane talk in the center of a large lobby

Before writer Brad McCannell explains five architectural changes that work for everyone, he points out his pet peeve. That would be when someone he is meeting with about building accessibility says, ‘I’m already accessible because my building meets code’. His story focuses on making meaningful changes to buildings. Read his full post, here.

OUR TAKE: A few facts to keep in mind when planning accessibility design in the age of concurrent pandemics, wildfires, tornadoes, and murderous hornet invasions. First, you’d best have an emergency plan for everyone, including people with disabilities. (The ADA law doesn’t stipulate that you must.)  Second, implementing a design that’s accessible for all should not only about wheelchair access. Second, according to the Centers for Disease Control, while it’s true that 13.7% of people with disabilities use a wheelchair. It’s on you to think about agility, hearing, vision, and cognition, too. Roughly 30 million Americans said they had difficulty climbing stairs or used a wheelchair, cane, crutches, or walker according to the last nationwide census.

To read more on this topic, visit our archive of disability advocates, here.

Who Is Wheelchair Jimmy and Why Should We Care?

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If you don’t already know ‘Wheelchair Jimmy’, you’re missing out on a treasure trove of information. This month, TravelAbilityInsider.com got a chance to catch up with the man behind the site, Jim Parsons, to talk about his accessibility reviews. There are more than 4,000 reviews in the site of accessible hotels, attractions, destinations—and just about any damn thing he feels like reviewing. He’s developed a credible rating system with the help of other disabled travelers to let folks know where to go and what to avoid. Since he retired, he’s been sharing his wheelchair travel insights through his website/online guide WheelchairJimmy.com.  


Q: When and what prompted you to create Wheelchair Jimmy?

A: At the age of 20, I became paralyzed in an accident and began using a wheelchair for mobility.  After the accident, I finished up my MBA at Indiana University and began a career in banking that required extensive travel. Well before the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), I had to learn  to navigate hotels, restaurants, airlines, from my wheelchair.

Q: How many destinations and reviews do you have on the site?

A: Five continents and 40+ countries in 50 years. 

Q: What is the purpose of your website and how many followers have signed up?

A: My travels over the past 50 years have taken me to so many places around the world—some great, some horrible. There are always challenges involved when traveling in a wheelchair. When I retired, I decided to create the site, WheelchairJimmy.com. I wanted to put together a site to review and rate hotels, restaurants, attractions, and transportation.  My purpose is to let people know what’s accessible and, more importantly, what to avoid. With that in mind, I created the Wheelchair Jimmy Accessibility Rating (WJAR) system.

Q: How does the WJAR Rating System work?

A: Indiana University has an accessibility program, so I asked one of the professors there to work with me to create the WJAR system. As we were building it out, hospitality Professor Cynthia Mehia at the University of Central Florida Hospitality (UCFH) program helped us create a database for the students. As they visited various properties, they collected accessibility information along with videos and photos. I then went in and analyzed the data and decided on a WJAR score for each venue. With the UCFH program, we’ve now covered all of Orlando and much more. I’ve also received calls from other hospitality programs wanting to get involved, so we’re working on bringing them on as well. They’re learning that it’s not just about ADA compliance it’s also about customer service and training. Some of the students rented wheelchairs to do their reviews. Through these programs, we’ve added over 200 entries to the database including hotels, restaurants, casinos, transportation, and attractions.

Q: What recommendations do you have for wheelchair users?

A: Never book anything online or even with the call centers for a hotel chain. When you reserve with a call center, they take down the booking information and then send the instructions to the specific property. However, sometimes the pertinent details aren’t properly relayed, so you end up arriving at your hotel and discover they didn’t reserve you an accessible room. I always reserve with the front desk of the specific property I’m going to stay at. I also have a list of 20 questions I ask them about accessibility.

Q: How many listings do you have on the site now? 

A: Currently, we have over 4,000 listings of hotels, restaurants, attractions, transportation companies, cruise lines and destinations.  Our YouTube channel has 400 video reviews. A total of 70 were done by hospitality program students from UN Las Vegas, and Rosen School of Hospitality at the University of Central Florida. 

Q: When people with a disability will be feel comfortable traveling again? 

A:  I’m carefully watching Las Vegas resorts and cruise lines. They operate as self- contained cities that have been catering, in varying degrees, to travelers with a disability. Las Vegas is opening in June. Carnival Cruise lines are taking reservations for August departures. From what I’ve seen, if the standards and practices they have been communicating work to create both a high safety level and a positive guest experience, they will be able to attract some people. That said, I don’t think the disability community will be traveling again until there’s a vaccine or pharmaceutical treatment that’s safe and widely available.

Q: Have you traveled since sheltering lockdowns were in place? 

A: We drove from Phoenix (where I spent the winter) back home to Washington State and spent two nights in hotels. I could see how sensitive they were to touchpoints, physical distancing, and food and beverage. Room service arrived in bags left outside our hotel room door.  

British Artists with Disabilities Show You How They’d Make Guests Miserable

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artist in over alls sits on motor scooter in what looks to be a woodcrafters shop
Samuels is an artist with a sense of humor and he’s using it to show how important accessibility in housing is. photo credit: DANIELLE BOWER

 Artist Christopher Samuel, who uses an electric wheelchair, knows how inconvenient and frustrating hotel rooms can be for people with disabilities. He spent three months in transitional housing in an inaccessible hotel room as disability agencies found a place for him, according to a story by Ian Youngs in BBC.COM. He had three words to describe the experience to you: Frustrating and sometimes humiliating. But it also made him industrious.

To call attention to the housing and accommodation issues in the U.K. he created a room that was completely inaccessible for people without disabilities. “I knew people would find [the room] amusing at first, but in reality, when you live that every day it’s not funny anymore,” says the artist. 

OUR TAKE: Frustrating and inconvenient. When you speak with people with disabilities, those words are a common thread. Awareness of how people who use wheelchairs and motorized devices to navigate the world is scarce in the travel business. The room inspired other artist to create their own personalized rooms. What’s the famous line? In so many words, it’s that art is not supposed to change the world, but to change perceptions—the way we see the world. As changemakers in the hospitality business, it’s our opportunity to make a huge difference in people’s lives, simply by changing the way you look at things.

OUR TAKE: Frustrating and sometimes humiliating. We hear those words often from people with disabilities. Awareness of how people who use wheelchairs and motorized devices to navigate the world is scarce in the travel business. The room inspired other artists to create their own personalized rooms. What’s the famous line? In so many words, it’s that art is not supposed to change the world, but to change perceptions—the way we see the world. As changemakers in the hospitality business, it’s our opportunity to make a huge difference in people’s lives, simply by changing the way you look at things. READ MORE OF THE STORY, here.

VIDEO: Hotel Manager Uses Wheelchair for a Day

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Hotel manager talks about what he learned using a wheelchair on his own property. Screenshot courtesy Spin the Globe.

Some of the most genius ideas are the simplest ones. For example, if you want to experience a hotel from a wheel-chair-users perspective and do an ADA compliance check at the same time, sit down and spend time in a wheelchair. In 2018, the hotel manager at the Alfond Inn Hotel did just that–with some coaching from Sylvia Longmire, who writes about the accessibility of destinations in her travel blog, Spin the Globe. The hotel manager later shared his insights with hospitality students. All are interviewed on camera about the experience. To see the video, visit Sylvia Longmire’s YouTube Channel here.

OUR TAKE
 The hotel manager’s nervous smile during his on-camera interview with vlogger Sylvia Longmire is priceless—he’s humble, friendly, honest and relieved. He’s a gem in a world of hotel managers, many of whom declined the offer. Longmire worked with hospitality program students at Rollins College on the video. They contacted over 50 hotel GM’s before they found one that would agree to be recorded in a wheelchair.

As for Longmire, she is her classically, compelling professional self: An Airforce intelligence vet, a 2016 Ms. Wheelchair America who is the first wheelchair ambassador for Oprah Magazine‘s Advisory Board and the author of an accessible cruise book. Working with the Rollins students on the video, the team really connects with viewers.

“I was able to navigate the hotel pretty easily—with the right coaching,” he says with a hand gesture to Longmire that infers, Yes, I needed an expert’s help but we did pretty well as a team! Still smiling he adds, “It seems as though we are compliant.” The short video has a great message, which is: The days of not understanding wheelchair users are over. I might as well try to be compliant and then some.”

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