TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Disability Awareness

Vroom, Vroom! Accessible Motorcycle Gang Roars to Life in India

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Group of disabled bikers in India.

Aameer Siddiqui was diagnosed with Post-Polio Residual Paralysis after his right leg became paralyzed at 18 months old. The disability didn’t stop Aameer – he earned an education and now works for India’s Department of Education.

In an effort to improve accessibility and inclusion in India, Aameer co-founded Eagle Specially Abled Riders in 2015. The group was established “with the aim of spreading awareness amongst people about social issues, and to draw attention towards disabled people,” said Aameer.

The accessible biker group completed the world’s longest accessible awareness ride in 2019, focusing on the ‘Importance of Education for Differently-Abled’. The 3,500km long ride began at India Gate in Delhi and went all the way to Gateway of India in Mumbai, before turning around and going back to India Gat. The journey was completed using scooters accessible to the riders’ disabilities.

The group, through its advocacy, is focused on improving the accessibility of tourist attractions and destinations. Ameer said: “An able-bodied person can use a ramp just as easily as stairs. Then what is the need for stairs? We must have ramps alone. The same goes for trains and buses. Buses have ramps only in the name; nobody waits long enough for us to use them.”

To read more about the Eagle Specially Abled Riders, check out the full story in Banega Swasth India.

OUR TAKE: The advocacy of Aameer and his motorcycle group is shifting the perception of disability in India, and it’s fantastic to see disabled people taking the lead on accessibility improvements!

How We Can Help Evacuate Disabled Ukrainians to Safety

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Group of Ukrainian evacuees, including wheelchair users.

The California-based non-profit Joni & Friends International Disability Center is helping stranded Ukrainians with disabilities cross the border into Poland and other neighboring countries. They are helping those who have great physical difficulty with moving far distances on their own.

Galyna, the Joni & Friends coordinator in Ukraine, reported on the horrors facing innocent civilians caught in the center of the war: “Russian troops use kids, they use pregnant women, they use sick people or hospitals for sick children as targets for missiles. That’s terrible. And we do not want the Russian soldiers to manipulate with the people with disabilities, or to use them as shields so that our Ukrainian soldiers will not be able to protect themselves, and to defend our country.”

To protect the disabled people of Ukraine, Joni & Friends recognized that it would need to mobilize and evacuate them from cities that have been transformed into battlefields.

As of Friday, the non-profit has helped evacuate the first wave of 35 people, including 15 with disabilities including cerebral palsy and Ukrainians who use wheelchairs for their mobility.

Earlier this week, TravelAbility donated $1,000 in the name of our new foundation. To learn more about the group’s work, or to donate to their cause, visit the Joni & Friends website.

11 of the Most Accessible Advertising Campaigns in 2021

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Deaf Lowes employee with vest that reads, please tap me on the shoulder if you need assistance.

The 2022 Paralympics are fast approaching and, if history is any indication, it’s a period during which brands will fill their advertising campaigns with disabled people and athletes. In an article for Adweek, Shannon Miller asked whether brands would make a lasting commitment to disability-inclusive advertising. Some brands have been on board with that commitment for some time, and the magazine highlighted that with a look at 11 of the most accessible brand campaigns and actions of 2021.

“My consideration of a through-line [between 2021’s most accessible brand initiatives] is a deeper commitment towards the disability inclusion that isn’t just a portrayal of disability in an advertisement in a singular ad,” Josh Loebner, executive director of inclusion and accessibility at Designsensory, tells Adweek. “We did see a lot more advertising with a disability because of the Paralympics this year, but a lot of the brands are making deeper commitments that aren’t simply propped up for that specific sporting opportunity.”

To read about the top accessible advertising campaigns of 2021, check out the article in Adweek.

How Paralympic Videos from 2016 and 2021 Reflect Two Starkly Different Messages

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The 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil promoted the games through a series of exquisitely produced videos that show people with disabilities performing incredible maneuvers of skill in “Yes I can”, around the idea that disabled people are inspirational and can do anything.

In 2021, organizers for the Tokyo Summer Games sought to reject the idea of disabled people as inspiration or objects of pity, instead focusing on the reality of disabled people as equal members of society – with the same interests, desires and responsibilities as nondisabled people.

OUR TAKE: The evolution in messaging around the Paralympics is representative of the disability community’s move to set boundaries and reclaim their identity, with a particular focus on breaking down the barriers to inclusion – many of which are founded on an antiquated understanding of disability.

How to Act Around Disabled People? Use Humor to Diffuse Awkwardness

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This short video from the Washington, D.C. Office of Disability Rights combines humor with simple insights on the best ways to respond when encountering people with different disabilities.

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