TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Disability Awareness

Texas Woman Uses TikTok Videos to Inspire People with Disabilities Just Like Her

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Young woman wearing colorful dress seated in wheelchair.

Through her inspiring TikTok videos, Marcela Marañon of Plano, TX is proving that people can conquer mountains both literal and symbolic by creating TikTok videos designed to provide support and inspiration for others, especially people like her who are living with disabilities.

After hearing about her story, TikTok recognized her as one of 15 Latinx TikTok Trailblazers. Marañon became a paraplegic at age 20 after she was paralyzed from the hips down and lost her lower left leg in a 2002 car crash in Dallas. Her boyfriend was killed.

Since then, Marañon has gained 203,000 TikTok followers and 3.3 million likes. Marañon said that she believes the social media platform is unique in that it allows people to quickly gain a large following if they provide valuable content.

To read more about Marcela’s success on TikTok, read the full article from the Dallas Morning News.

The Future of Inaccessibility? Wheelchair Space Kitchen — A Parody Exhibit Opens in Denver

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The Wheelchair Space Kitchen gives a preview of what it’s like to be disabled.

There are parts of the Wheelchair Space Kitchen—just one of many rooms in Meow Wolf’s 90,000 square-foot Convergence Station, which opens in Denver on September 17—that won’t be accessible. A cabinet will be too high, a countertop too low. You might feel like you’re Alice in Wonderland, shrinking too small to reach a table or growing too tall to fit through a door. Some messages are written in Braille, and unless you read Braille, you’re out of luck.

This exhibit will give visitors an opportunity to feel what it is like to face obstacles — hopefully kindling in them a sense of understanding and empathy for those who face barriers on a regular basis, whether as a result of a disability or for some other reason. To read more about the Wheelchair Space Kitchen, see the original article in Thrillist.

Blind Ambition: Helen Keller Joins Mattel’s Inspiring Women Line

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Helen Keller Barbie doll.

Popular children’s toy brand Mattel recently announced a new addition to its Inspiring Women line of Barbie brand dolls: Helen Keller.

The company says Helen Keller is an inspiring role model for children, and her lifetime achievements make her worthy of being honored alongside the other women who are memorialized in the Inspiring Women line of dolls. Those women include Dr. Maya Angelou, Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Earhart, Ella Fitzgerald, Katherine Johnson, Freda Kahlo, Billie Jean King, Florence Nightingale, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Sally Ride.

Mattel partnered with the National Federation of the Blind to ensure accuracy and accessibility for the blind and low vision community.

To read more about the new Helen Keller Barbie doll, read this article on the ArkLaTex homepage.

LaunchPad: Curated Barrier-Breaking Ideas and Products available now or Coming Soon to the Phone in your Hand.

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Prior to the launch of TravelAbility I, like many people, mistakenly believed that the world of People with Disabilities (PwD) was one filled with dire pronouncements and woe, but the innovative solutions presented at Launchpad brought just the opposite by showing how much entrepreneurial energy and creativity is being directed at solutions that will help disabled travelers adapt to a world that has never been adaptable to them.

TravelAbility’s LaunchPad, was held virtually April 1st and featured 15 innovators selected following a review and vetting process that began back in June of 2020. 

One person I spoke with after the event even used the word “sexy,” to describe the products and, while that may have been a stretch, they were definitely cool and inspiring for me to see so many organizations working to help make travel easier for people with a variety of disabilities.

Each company made a 3-minute pitch to a panel of judges that represented members of the travel industry, the disability community as well as impact investors.

Kate Farbo, from Visit Lancaster, wrote in an e-mail: “I attended TravelAbility’s Launchpad and was really blown away. It was an incredible experience watching so many talented, intelligent and passionate people sharing their ideas to improve the world of accessible travel.”

This year’s judges included: Charles Hammerman, CEO of the Disability Opportunity Fund; Ron Pettit, Head of Accessibility, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines; Zach Curry, Director of Guest Experience and Accessiblity at Marriott; Toby Willis, Product Manager and president of accessibility club at Expedia; Jay Cardinali, former Head of Global Accessibility, Disney Parks and Resorts; Betty Adams, Head, Investment committee, Disability Investment Fund.

Srin Madipalli, former head of Accessibility for Airbnb, and now an angel investor in 16 start-ups, who founded the widely acclaimed Accessible Travel Club group on Facebook, served as our guest emcee and moderator.

JUDGES CHOICE.

1st Place  Vispero  JAWS Kiosk a, text to speech software than enable people who are blind or who have low vision to use self-service kiosks in airports, hotels and visitor centers. Presenter: Laura Miller, Corporate Business Development Manager

2nd Place: Mobi-Mat makes a slip-free rollout mat for beaches and uneven surfaces as well as floating wheelchairs for beach and pool use.  Presenters: Sandrine Carpenter-Bernard, CEO/Greg Scull, Area Sales Manager

3rd Place: SATS: Service Animal Travel Solutions. A one-stop central database for service animal verification recently launched with Alaska Airlines as their first airline partner. Presenter: Gina Emrich, Co-Founder

“This recognition of the JAWS Kiosk screen reader as the TravelAbility LaunchPad Judge’s Choice is a great sign of how the travel industry is embracing this tool for making their kiosks accessible for users with disabilities. We look forward to seeing more of the many accessible solutions featured in the LaunchPad event.” Matt Ater, Vice President of Business Development, Vispero.

You may view the 3-minute presentations here.

1st .This is Vispero

2nd. This is Mobi Mat

3rd. This is Service Animal Training Solutions

NEW THIS YEAR: PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS. This year we added the “People’s Choice” award, in which attendees were polled to name their favorite presentations.

PEOPLE’S CHOICE:

1st Place: Revolve Air Wheelchair.  A high-tech wheelchair that folds up to fit as airline carry-on. Andrea Mocellin, Founder

2nd Place: Alinker. A Walking Bike. A non-motorized “walking-bike” designed for people with mobility challenges has evolved into a wellness ecosystem that includes Alinker yoga classes, nutrition programs and is supplemented by a produce farm in Kentucky that employs disabled workers. Presenter: BE ALink, Founder

3rd Place: Omeo Technologies. Hands-free electric wheelchair that uses Active Seat Control technology user’s core muscles to control movement.  Presenter: Spring Adamo, North American Representative

These are their 3 minute presentations

1st. This is Revolve Air Wheelchair

2nd.This is ALinker.

3rd. This is the Omeo Wheelchair

“Winning the people’s choice award gives me the incentive to keep working with this amazing network to advance technology and user experience for active wheelchair users.” Andrea Mocellini, Founder, Revolve.

While the judges selected innovations based on their practical applicability for travel industry suppliers along the chain of travel, attendee choices tended to mostly benefit users.  In the end, it was a reflection of the best of both worlds.

LAUNCHPAD RECORDING AVAILABLE:

For those who were not able to attend, the full four-hour recording can be purchased from our website here for $49 until May 15. 

REGISTER FOR the second session of TravelAbilty 2021 “The (Rocky) Road to Recovery” to be held on JUNE 24th.  A conversational format that includes briefs from Google, Disney, Marriott, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, and 14 others.  See the Agenda here. 

Finally, I would like to thank my wonderful team of Katie Philson and Tricia Roth, both of whom helped produce the first TravelAbility Summit in San Francisco, and Laura Erskine, a former television news producer who helped coordinate the videos so that the technical glitches were kept to a minimum.

Jake Steinman

Crip Camp Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary

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Crip Camp movie poster.

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution is a 2020 documentary film that follows a number of prominent disability rights activists, beginning with their participation in 1971 at Camp Jened, a summer camp for teens with disabilities.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020, where it won the Audience Award. In March 2020, Crip Camp was released on Netflix and received substantial praise from both disabled and nondisabled people. In 2021, the film was nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Documentary Feature.

In the short (7 minutes) video below, CBS Sunday Morning takes a look at the film, the campers and the disability rights movement:

The 93rd Academy Awards will be broadcast at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, April 25, 2021 on ABC. While earning a nomination is an incredible honor, we do hope that Crip Camp and the film’s entire team including Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht and Sara Bolder will be able to take home the Oscar.