TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Disability Awareness

NYT Daily’s Podcast Uncovers Sites Unseen: The Blind Leading the Sighted

by Leave a Comment

Andy Isaacson wearing a dark green linen shirt sits with his hands clasped, smiling at the camera in a warmly decorated room with colorful pillows in the background.

On this episode of The New York Times’ “The Sunday Daily,”  Andy Isaacson talks with Host Michael Barbaro about a trip that forever changed the way he travels.

Andy Isaacson is a writer and photographer. His work for The Times has taken him to every corner of the world, and he has transmitted what he’s experienced through his images.

But recently, Isaacson took a trip unlike any he’d taken before. Not because of where he traveled, but because of how he traveled.

Paired with a set of unlikely travel companions, he put down his camera and experienced the word through touch, smell and sound.

↪Listen to the incredible story here

Visit Lansing’s New Route to Accessible Wayfinding with AARP

by

Julie Pingston wearing a purple blazer smiles at the camera while standing indoors near a row of glass windows. The setting appears to be a professional office or hallway.

For nearly a decade, Julie Pingston has been quietly shaping what accessibility looks like in Lansing, Michigan. What began with sensory-friendly programming has grown into something much larger, more embedded, and, as she describes it, “simply part of how the community operates.” It’s definitely something to be proud of.

Now, that work is expanding beyond venues and experiences and into the streets themselves.

A Walking Audit with Purpose

The newest initiative is a partnership with AARP Michigan centered around what is known as a “walking audit.” 

“This walking audit,” Pingston explains, “is a training on how to do a walking audit. This is what we’re calling a train-the-trainer.”

The concept is collaborative and practical. Teams move through a community together, walking and rolling through public spaces to evaluate how accessible they truly are. The goal is not just observation, but education and replication.

“It’s a team that goes through wayfinding, curb cuts, lighting, visual and audio cues, identifying barriers,” she says.

Rather than receiving a report from an outside evaluator, participants are immersed in the process themselves. 

“You’re going through with them,” she says. “It’s not that they just send you a report. You’re learning together.” This lived experience, instead of a report on paper, brings us one step closer to true understanding.

“The synergy of that one day, will spill out when everybody learns and takes that knowledge back to wherever it makes sense to implement. Some people might want to do that in their own neighborhood. Some people might want to do it along our river trail, or incorporate bike trails. It’s a very robust program.”

The Inspiration

Pingston has a reputation for prioritizing accessibility and inclusion, so she was excited when AARP Michigan reached out to her for this initiative. “It just makes sense with everything TravelAbility has been saying with the growth in the aging population and all of these amassing and overlapping needs as we move forward.” 

AARP connected with Pingston at just the right moment, on a call during last year’s TravelAbility Summit, when she was already in go-mode applying all that she was learning. Thanks to AARP’s online toolkit, getting started is easy.

From Awareness to Action

The audit examines the everyday details that can make or break accessibility.

“It will identify a lot of those things that are a hindrance to mobility,” Pingston says. “It could be that the crosswalk signals are not audio, they’re only visual. It focuses on lighting as well. Is it pedestrian friendly or not? Are there proper curb cuts? Are there visual cues or auditory cues missing?”

Some barriers are less obvious until you experience them firsthand.

“In our downtown, I can think of a place with large planters about a third of the way into the pedestrian path,” she says. “For someone with low vision or using a mobility device, these are an impediment. I don’t know how people don’t walk right into them.”

The audit also pushes communities to think more broadly about infrastructure.

“One of the things I want to cover is a road downtown that goes 45 miles an hour through a busy intersection near our convention center,” she notes. “How do we identify the impact on the walkability of the city, and then how do we elevate change?”

That question sits at the heart of the initiative.

“My goal is to have change affected by this,” Pingston says. “Not just identifying issues, but making sure we can point them out and have them addressed.”

What We Mean by “Walk” 

While the program is called a walking audit, Pingston is quick to expand the definition.

“I’m really trying to shift that,” she says. “Let’s think of people rolling, and walkers, and strollers, and everything that needs to move down this path.”

That mindset aligns closely with broader conversations across the accessibility space, particularly as aging populations and disability needs increasingly overlap.

How You Can Hop On Board

For destination marketing organizations looking to follow suit, Pingston emphasizes that the barrier to entry is lower than it might seem.

“Check out the online toolkit,” she says. “You don’t even have to sign up as an AARP member. You can go on and get the toolkit.”

From there, DMOs can scale up.

“If your community wants to do the bigger step, reach out to your local or statewide AARP to partner with them,” she advises. “There may be a grant for the facilitation process.”

The facilitator component, which Lansing is utilizing, helps deepen the learning and ensures participants know what to look for.

“I might know personally that something doesn’t look right,” Pingston says. “But there are things I don’t know. There’s so much value in doing it as a team effort and learning together.”

Building a Case for Change

One of the most significant outcomes of the audit is not just awareness, but documentation.

“It’s going to provide a documented resource that the community or the city can use as a tool going forward,” Pingston explains. “A lot of people know things anecdotally, but once you put it all in one package and say, this is how we can make this better, it becomes something people can prioritize.”

That shift from anecdotal to actionable is where real progress happens.

An Accessibility Champion’s Next Move

For Pingston and her team, the walking audit is one step in an ongoing journey.

“You never want to just be set with what you’ve done,” she says.

Future plans include expanding accessibility efforts into sports and education, building on Lansing’s strong foundation.

“We have a very vibrant sports commission,” she says. “So how can we take what we’ve done on the visitor and meetings side and transfer that over to sports? We’re a Big Ten university destination, so there are a lot of opportunities to connect with adaptive sports.”

At the same time, the sensory inclusive work that started it all continues to thrive.

“It has not wavered,” Pingston says. “Everyone we brought in is still engaged. We have not lost any of them. It’s become routine.”

And that may be her greatest accomplishment of all.

“It’s become routine,” she repeats. “This isn’t going to go away.”

For other destinations, that consistency offers both inspiration and a roadmap. Start with intention, build with community, and keep going until accessibility is no longer an initiative, but simply the way things are done.

Shaping Accessible Travel: Destination A11y Club Members Drive Innovation

by

What began as a space to connect around the TravelAbility Playbook has evolved into something far bigger. The Destination A11y Club (DAC) is no longer just sharing ideas. It’s launching pilots, influencing policy conversations, embedding accessibility into education, and building tools that will shape how destinations prepare for 2030 and beyond.

Here’s a snapshot from February’s DAC meeting.

Jake Steinman, Founder, TravelAbility

The 2030 “Moonshot” + Convention Center Pilot

Following a 47-stop listening tour that included meetings with Destination DC and VISIT FLORIDA, Jake shared two major initiatives:

1. TravelAbility Approved Convention Centers (Pilot Launching)

A new program designed to align accessibility with sustainability-level standards. Five DAC DMOs will pilot the program. Coverage from USAE will provide marketing and gauge interest.

2. America 250: Accessibility Handbook

Along with the DAC, TravelAbility is developing an accessibility framework to support America 250 celebrations — with a legacy impact that extends beyond 2026. The goal is to position DMOs as the accessibility hub connecting transportation, planning, disability services, and city leadership.

3. Plug-and-Play Accessibility Guide

TravelAbility has compiled vetted InnovateAble products, affordable, scalable solutions for convention centers, cities, and hotels, creating an actionable menu of improvements tied directly to the 2030 demographic shift.

Destination Updates from the Field

Tami Reist, CEO, Visit North Alabama

Launched a first-of-its-kind accessible adventure guide and distributed $500 micro-grants across her 16 counties to spark tangible improvements—from sensory rooms and Braille signage to automated doors for independent wheelchair access—now compiling the results into a regional booklet tied to America 250. She’s leveraging the initiative to engage congressional and transportation leaders on the coming 2030 accessibility surge, while also pushing the hotel industry to confront unmet demand for accessible rooms and rethink compliance as both an economic and community imperative.

Molly Barbeiri, Visit Tampa Bay

Announced that early bird registration is now open for the upcoming TravelAbility Summit in Tampa, alongside monthly strategy calls with TravelAbility positioning the city as a model accessible destination of the future. As part of that effort, Tampa is working with a the host hotel to transform two ADA rooms into hands-on accessibility showrooms featuring InnovateAble style “catalog” products, inviting hotels and attractions to tour the spaces daily and accelerate adoption across the destination.

Cassie & Rami, Visit Charlottesville

Hosted their third annual “Tourism for All” conference, drawing 125 tourism professionals and centering accessibility with a dedicated panel. Secured a $10,000 grant from Virginia Tourism Corporation to bring Houston Vandergriff of Downs & Towns to the destination for a three-day, history-focused itinerary aligned with America 250. Houston’s project now appears in 100,000 printed visitor guides, which also feature a new accessibility page directing readers online—work that has already inspired Tennessee State Parks to pursue a similar collaboration, with Charlottesville next presenting on accessibility at the Virginia Association of Museums Conference.

Kate Lieto, Experience Grand Rapids

Launched a new AI Accessibility Agent in partnership with Wheel the World, the result of nearly a year of development. The visitor-facing chatbot includes accessibility details for roughly 500 mapped venues—sourced through the local disability network, Wheel the World data, and hosted influencers—and can answer both broad trip-planning questions and highly specific ones, like exact hotel bed heights, with more enhancements still to come.

Claire Mouledoux, Visit Alexandria

Launching a new destination campaign that, for the first time, features a traveler with a visible disability in the primary cast, signaling a meaningful step forward in representation. With new senior operations leader Mary Ronaldo championing accessibility internally, the team is continuing staff-wide training with Visitable and hosting a “Welcoming Travelers with Disabilities” member program this April at Virginia Tech’s Alexandria campus—embedding accessibility across marketing, operations, and membership efforts.

Julie Pingston, Choose Lansing

Launching a walking study with AARP to train stakeholders on infrastructure improvements that benefit both residents and visitors.

Kate Sappell, Travel Oregon

Concentrating on the DOJ’s digital accessibility compliance deadline, supporting partners in meeting WCAG 2.1 AA standards through a statewide webinar and a new “Ask an Expert” program that offers up to five hours of one-on-one consulting with accessibility specialist Jen Macias. The team is also working to better connect physical accessibility assessments with the online visitor experience and will spotlight that progress at the Governor’s Conference in panels including disability advocate Sophie Morgan.

Toni Bastian, Visit Richmond

As host of this June’s TBEX, Visit Richmond created 19 pre-conference tours and ensured each one includes detailed, practical accessibility information on the event website—raising the bar beyond the typical “not ADA” label seen at prior conferences. The team used TravelAbility’s AI Companion to refine clear, respectful language for the descriptions, aligning with TBEX’s broader accessibility programming this year, which includes a keynote including Cory Lee, Leslie Walker, and Phoenyx Powell.

Kitty Sharman, TravelAbility

Nearly 3,000 students have completed an accessibility module based on the TravelAbility Playbook embedded within required coursework, helping scale accessibility education across the next generation of industry leaders.

Hot-Off-the-Press Data | Brian Searfoss, VP Client Engagement, Longwoods International

In partnership with TravelAbility, Longwoods analyzed 3,985 overnight trips (Jan–June 2025).

Key Findings:

  • 18% of U.S. travel parties include someone requiring accessibility services
  • 62% mobility-related
  • 20% hearing
  • 20% vision
  • 18% cognitive/neurodiverse

This is not an occasional traveler segment:

  • 36% take four or more trips annually
  • 58% strongly prefer returning to destinations that prove accessible
  • 80% of travelers with disabilities plan their own trips

Accessibility performance nationally is holding steady — but not improving. Some destinations saw satisfaction decline in 2024.

The takeaway: accessibility isn’t niche. It’s loyalty, frequency, and long-lead planning power.

1 Million Impacted: Meg Raby and KultureCity Create Sensory Inclusion One Bag at a Time

by

By Jennifer Allen

While most people are familiar with the five senses, KultureCity teaches about eight. Then they introduce a powerful ninth: the sense of belonging.

Some leaders build programs. Others build belonging.

TravelAbility’s Advisory Board member Meg Raby Klinghoffer is doing both. As Chief Koji Officer at KultureCity, sensory training developer and trainer, writer, speaker, and autistic self-advocate Meg’s default setting is “world changer” – on and off the clock.

KultureCity is the nation’s leading nonprofit in sensory accessibility and inclusion, serving the one in four individuals with invisible disabilities or sensory sensitivities. While most people are familiar with the five senses, KultureCity teaches about eight. Then they introduce a powerful ninth: the sense of belonging.

“Yes, there are tools that are needed. Yes, there’s training that’s needed,” Meg says. “But that foundation of curiosity and empathy toward guests, patrons, and your own staff is essential for actual accessibility and inclusion to happen.”

That ninth sense of belonging is what Meg champions every day.

Leading with Curiosity

If it seems like Meg’s work and life blur together, it’s because her passion is deeply personal and woven through every part of her story. As a child, and an autistic rule-follower, she wore a back brace 23 hours a day for her scoliosis. She had many diagnoses and exceptionalities, but living in constant physical discomfort while navigating life with autism sharpened her empathy early.

It also shaped the advice she now shares with partners across the country: “It’s all about having curiosity about one another.”

In her trainings, she encourages staff to assume guests are well-intentioned. To pause before reacting. To wonder what kind of morning someone may have had. To consider what unseen challenges might be influencing behavior. “It’s not just a cliche phrase, it’s completely truthful: no matter who it is, or how averse to a person you may feel, we have no idea what’s going on in someone else’s life.” When we operate from curiosity instead of judgment, everything changes.

That same empathy extends beyond trainings and boardrooms.

In 2019, Meg published My Brother Otto, a children’s book celebrating neurodiversity and sibling connection. The book has become a powerful entry point for conversations about autism, difference, and belonging.

She also serves as the autistic maternal voice for Scary Mommy, where her honest, often humorous essays on parenting and neurodiversity have reached thousands of readers. Through storytelling, she does what she does best: makes invisible experiences visible.

Turning Passion into Impact

Meg wears many hats at KultureCity. She oversees Koji, the organization’s free AI communication tool within the app. She co-develops and delivers more than a dozen sensory accessibility trainings, including specialized modules for environments like zoos, aquariums, and museums. She leads customer success and partnership engagement. She also helps guide the organization’s growing footprint in travel alongside TravelAbility.

With more than 3,000 certified locations and over one million sensory bags distributed, KultureCity now partners with organizations ranging from local businesses to NFL and NBA venues. Super Bowl host stadiums are required to be trained. Airports across the country are embracing sensory inclusion. Entire cities are exploring certification.

For Meg, success is simple: someone walks into a space, goes to a game, or boards a plane and thinks, They thought of me.

What Keeps it all Moving

When asked about the KultureCity’s fast and steady expansion, Meg brings it back to personal connection and story. There’s always some connection to someone with a need, and that’s what will continue to fuel passion and growth. For example, moved by the story of a coworker’s autistic son, the Salt Lake City International Airport didn’t stop at installing a single sensory room — they built three, thoughtfully spaced throughout the facility. They paired them with staff training and sensory bags for travelers.

When an artistic river tunnel connecting terminals began causing dizziness and migraines for some seniors with dementia, the airport reached out again, asking what more could be done.

Of course KultureCity was ready with suggestions: strobe-reduction glasses, noise-canceling headphones, clear signage, and sanitizing stations on both sides of the tunnel so travelers can borrow tools as they pass through.

“That’s when you know a partner is all in,” Meg says. “When they ask, ‘What more can we do?’”

Creating Cohesion in a Fragmented Space

“There’s so much out there, so many options that it can put you into freeze mode, and you don’t know where to begin,” Meg explains. “The issue with all things disability is there are not a lot of go-to resources with cohesion.” You may look at dozens of options, and they’re all good options, but how do you know which one will make the most difference?

The KultureCity symbol has become a widely recognized sign of welcome for those seeking sensory-friendly spaces. “Our goal is not to be a monopoly, but to be a symbol — that all who see it will think, ‘Oh my gosh. They thought of me, or of my child, or mother, or brother, or sister.’” 

That symbol matters. Because visibility matters.

“We’re in this to make the world better for those who feel unseen,” she says. “It doesn’t have to take much money or much time, and the impact is immeasurable.”

For organizations hesitant to begin, she offers reassurance.

“People will think, ‘I have to change so much.’ And there’s something gentle and inviting about partnering with KultureCity.” It’s accessible and comprehensive — meeting organizations wherever they are on their inclusion journey.

Inclusion doesn’t require perfection. It requires intention.

Accessibility Playbook Quiz: Do You Speak Accessibility Fluently?

by

(No trick questions… just real-world moments.)

Take the Quiz!

How’d you do?

If any of these made you pause (or rethink a phrase you’ve used), you’re exactly where you should be. Find the correct answers and more on disability language in this TravelAbility Playbook snippet.

COMMUNICATION GUIDANCE

Part of what makes communicating challenging is that people with disabilities are not a homogenous group. A good practice is to ask how someone prefers to describe themselves and, if you inadvertently offend someone with your language, apologize and ask them to share with you their preferred language. There are generally two ways to approach this: person-first or identity-first. Neither is right or wrong; we should simply honor an individual’s preference.

Person-first language: Person-first language emphasizes the person first — their individuality, their complexity, their humanness and their equality.

Example: “A person with a disability” Identity-first language: Identity-first language emphasizes that the disability plays a role in who the person is and reinforces disability as a positive cultural identifier.

Example: “Disabled person”

TIPSUSEDO NOT USE
Emphasize abilities, not limitationsPerson who uses a wheelchairConfined or restricted to a wheelchair, wheelchair bound
Person who uses a device to speak Can’t talk, mute
Do not use language that suggests the lack of somethingPerson with a disabilityDisabled, handicapped
Person of short stature Midget
Person with cerebral palsyCerebral palsy victim
Person with epilepsy or seizure disorderEpileptic
Person with multiple sclerosis Afflicted by multiple sclerosis
Emphasize the need for accessibility, not the disabilityAccessible parking or bathroomHandicapped parking or bathroom
Do not use offensive language Person with a physical disabilityCrippled, lame, deformed, invalid, spastic
Person with an intellectual, cognitive, developmental disabilitySlow, simple, moronic, defective, afflicted, special person
Person with and emotional or behavioral disability, a mental health impairment, or a psychiatric disabilityInsane, crazy, psycho, maniac, nuts

Avoid language that implies negative stereotypes		Person without a disabilityNormal person, healthy person

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

Your name and email will never be sold to third parties.

SUBSCRIBE TODAY!

Your name and email will never be sold to 3rd parties.