TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Editorial

A Warm Welcome to Three New TravelAbility Summit Advisory Board Members

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headshots of three men who are now adivisory board members all wearing suits
(left to right) Dave Lorenz, Myron Pincomb and Marc Garcia.

 

Dave Lorenz is Vice President of Travel Michigan based in Lansing. It was Dave who challenged their 2018 Governor’s Conference to submit any new initiatives around accessible travel. One year later, at the 2019 Governor’s Conference on Tourism, his partners submitted 19 new proposals. The goal was to work across state organizations to create attractions and transportation that would be fully accessible to people with disabilities and other needs. Read more about it here. Dave also helped implement the successful Pure Michigan advertising and marketing campaign that has vaulted Michigan into tourism prominence around the nation.

Myron Pincomb, investor and Chairman of the Board of IBCCES (International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards) has 20 years of experience starting, building and leading healthcare and edtech companies. In 1999, Myron founded Educational Tools, Inc. Under Myron’s leadership, it has grown from a small technology start-up to a major player in the digital curriculum for children with special needs. Among his many accomplishments, Myron was appointed by the Board of Governors to lead the Online Learning Taskforce for the state of Florida, which focuses on mapping the future of online learning for Florida’s 12 universities, 28 state colleges, and nearly 4000 K-12 schools.

Read more about IBCCES’s work across the country here and here.

Marc Garcia was named the president and CEO of Visit Mesa in 2012 and in just a few years he’s led the community of Mesa, Arizona, into a new age of tourism. One of his most recent distinctions is helping the firm become the first travel marketing company to become a Certified Autism Center. Read more about their certification process, here. Before arriving in Mesa, he led tourism efforts in Phoenix, including leading the Phoenix bureau’s sales and service efforts for high-profile national events including Super Bowl XLII, NBA All-Star Weekend 2009, WrestleMania XXVI and 2011 MLB All-Star Summer.

 

Flying Tips for Wheelchair Users, From Wheelchair Users

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arrival and departure board at an airportIf you’re taking to the air with a wheelchair, there’s almost always an added level of stress. Learn from people with lived experience thanks to this New York Times story.  READ MORE

Wheelchair Demolition Derby: Which Airline Mangled the Most Wheelchairs in February?

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wheelchair accessibility sign that is old and needs repaintingCongress passed the FAA Reauthorization Act last year, which included a ruling that requires airlines to report the total number of wheelchairs carried and mishandled each month. Now the first damage data is out. See who received a good grade for accurate reporting, while others are scoring ‘incomplete’. READ MORE

New Documentary: Blind Guy and Comedian Traveling Together for Laughs

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Photo of buddies Amar and Sara standing in front of a mountains capeThis March BBC2 is airing Travelling Blind, the story of two stars, blind adventurer and entrepreneur Amar Latif and sighted comedian Sara Pascoe. Learn more about Latif and Pascoe on Twitter. For details on the film, READ MORE.

How I Made It Home From Vacation in One Piece

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photo of Jake SteinmanFor the past month, I’ve been on vacation in Australia and New Zealand. New Zealand has no freeway system, so we found ourselves on a two-lane road heading out of Queenstown. About an hour into the drive we were staring at the back of a semi-trailer truck, slowly making its way ahead of us.

I made my move to pass—but as I was pulling up alongside the truck, a white SUV, hidden from view by a dip in the road, was coming at us head-on, seemingly out of nowhere. The SUV veered to my right. The semi moved to the left.  I somehow was able to maneuver between them with inches to spare on both sides. It felt like a movie stunt. No one got hurt, miraculously. I’m still spending sleepless nights thinking about how I endangered the lives of my wife and stepson, as well as those in the other vehicles. The reason was simple impatience. There was no need to try to rush. We weren’t late. We were on vacation. I am grateful to be alive to tell you this story and the effect it has had on me personally. The reason I’m telling you this is that if just one more person exercises patience on their next vacation, it could save their life and others. The experience has motivated me to work even more diligently to create a conference that will bring the disability and travel communities together to create awareness, opportunities, and solutions that we hope will lead to safer, easier travel for everyone.

Our mission is to create content that will have a ripple effect, educating destinations and their partners to the fact that by making hotels, attractions and tours more accessible, they are helping 25% of the population that has a disability and who deserve a more pleasing travel experience. Thank you for taking part in such an important journey.

—Jake Steinman, Founder, TravelAbility Summit