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TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Editorial

Davos: Employees with Disabilities on the Agenda

January 31, 2023 by Debbie Austin

Photo ofsmiling  Caroline Casey, social entrepreneur wearing a black shirt .She has long blonde hair

Social entrepreneur Caroline Casey, who is blind, has put disability on the main stage at this elite forum where business leaders are likely masking their true selves. Only three per cent of CEOs would go public about a disability or caregiving role, according to a recent survey by The Valuable 500 collective of global firms. Ms Casey launched Valuable at the World Economic Forum in Davos four years ago to encourage businesses to tap into the skills and consumer power of 1.3 billion people living with disabilities worldwide.

“Let’s be honest, disability has never been on a platform like this ever before, You’re here to hustle, and you can pretty much hustle and meet more people than you can imagine, It’s about using the power of business to end disability exclusion.” she said.

TravelAbility Insider Insight: Not only do workers with disabilities try to hide their disability, they are also reluctant to travel due to their negative past experiences.  We believe it was Mark Twain, who said: “Once a cat sits on a hot stove he’ll never sit on a hot stove again, but he’ll never sit on a cold one either.With 35% of the employees working remotely the reluctance to travel limits the advancement  of disabled team members as they are not privy to team building off -sites, and the opportunities at industry conferences and trade shows to network and schmooze. It is up to meeting planners, conference facilities managers and the hospitality industry to help reverse this trend in this critical segment of the travel industry.

Read more.

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Filed Under: Disability Advocates, Disability Awareness, Editorial, Vision Tagged With: Davos, Employees with Disabilities

Is L’Oréal’s New Robotic Lipstick applicator just Lip Service?

January 31, 2023 by Debbie Austin

Today, many people with disabilities face a sense of exclusion when they browse the cosmetics aisle. There are often few, if any, products designed for someone with limited fine motor skills. L’Oréal has introduced a robotic lipstick applicator designed for people with limited hand and arm mobility.

“Hapta is essentially a miniature robotic arm that requires lots of machine learning and complicated algorithms. Combine that with our sense of purpose and drive around inclusion, I truly believe this is the result of the marriage of these two forces.” said Guive Balooch, the global chief of L’Oréal’s technology incubator.

TravelAbility Insider Insight:  While there have been other accessible personal products developed by major brands for people with limited arm and hand mobility, Degree Inclusive deodorant comes to mind, this may be the tip of the beauty-industrial complex iceberg as robotics and advanced AI such as CHATGPT, may portend a future of robotic cosmetologists providing on-demand automated makeovers. However, today, it provides a welcome layer of independence for those with cerebral palsy or Parkinson’s disease. Read More.

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Filed Under: Conferences & Events, Editorial, Trends

TravelAbility Advisory Board Members In the News:

January 31, 2023 by Debbie Austin

John Morris Meets the Pope

Photo of John Morris in wheelchair wearing a blue ski jacket shaking hands with the Pope who is in a wheelchair and dressed in a white cassock

Blessings to John Morris, founder of Wheelchairtravel.org, who paid a visit to Vatican City in Rome this past November that included a face-to-face audience with Pope Francis, a fellow wheelchair user. Learn How He Did it

Wheel the World Recognized By Fast Company

Photo of Camilo Navarro with beard wearing black fleece jacket

Kudos to Wheel the World co-founder and advisory board member Camilo Navarro on being selected as one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Travel Companies of 2022 as well as being invited to make a presentation from the main stage at CES in Las Vegas.

Goodmaps Wins CTA Pitch Competition

Headshot of Mike May wearing blue collared polo shirt

Hats off to Advisory Board member Mike May, chief evangelist, Goodmaps, which won the 2023 Consumer Technology Association (CTA) pitch competition at the 2023 CES in Las Vegas.

Josh Loebner in Adweek

photo of Josh Loebner  in glasses wearing white shirt, purple cross hatched tie and a vest

Cheers to Advisory Board member, Josh Loebner, PhD, Global Director of Accessibility, Wunderman Thompson, who reviewed Seven of the most Accessible Brand campaigns and Actions of 2022 in an interview with Adweek.

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Filed Under: Accessibility Awards, Advisory Board, Disability Advocates

TravelAbility in the News 2022

December 30, 2022 by Debbie Austin

December 19, 2022:  Hospitality Associations Petition to send “Tester” cases to the Supreme Court.

December 5, 2022:The Unintended Consequences of Being an Accessible Destination

November 19, 2022:  Seven Unintended Benefits of Becoming an Accessible Hotel.

June 27, 2022:  TravelAbility’s Emerging Markets Summit: A Review

June 13, 2022:  TravelAbility’s 2022 Emerging Markets Summit Overview

May 30, 2022: TravelAbility Emerging Markets Summit 38-Page Preview Edition

February 21, 2022:  TravelAbility Publishes industry’s first Accessibility Playbook.

January 20, 2022. TravelAbility Announces Free Portal Linking people with Disabilities to Free Travel content for 125+ destinations.

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Filed Under: Conferences & Events, Editorial, Trends

The Evolution of TravelAbility 2020-2022

December 30, 2022 by Debbie Austin

Since 2019, when we formed TravelAbility, our efforts have focused on creating an industry hub that provides research, tools, tips and innovations that the travel industry needs to be accessible for people with disabilities.  Below you will find a summary of the progress we’ve made on the portfolio of projects we’ve undertaken over the last three years. 

New for 2023:

  1. TravelAbility has signed an MOU with the Rosen College of Hospitality Management, part of the University of Central Florida , to develop a weekly one hour Accessibility in Travel learning module that will be a requisite for graduation for all 3300 students.
  2. TravelAbility for Hospitality, targeted to our proprietary database of 3300 hotel management company executives covering accessibility and sustainability
  3. Testing Ideas that can scale: Develop a series of beta/ pilot programs that will be introduced at EMS 2023 in Savannah
  4. Expand Accessible Destinations landing project top 20 tourism destinations in Europe
  5. Re-branding TravelAbility’s Launchpad pitchfest to the InnovateAble Showcase

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Filed Under: Accessibility, Conferences & Events, Editorial, Hotels, Travel

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