TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Mobility

How to Plan a Cruise That’s Not a Snooze for People With Low Mobility

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flip flops at the edge of a pool that says 1.00M The flip flops have the British flag on them

Barbara and Jim Twardowski write about travel, lifestyle and boomer topics from the New Orleans area. In this piece for the New York Times, they have compiled some evergreen tips for cruise travel that are worth sharing, whether you’re worried about how to get from the plane to the ship or need an activity plan that caters to people with low mobility.  READ MORE

OUR TAKE: Planning is key to making the most out of a trip for people with disabilities. As part of the travel industry, it’s also one way you can make your organization stand out. Offering great service and suggestions to people who often feel overlooked (the disability community being one)is a great way to build incremental business and freshen up your collateral online and onboard.

 

50 “Accessible Hacks”​ to Make Travel More Enjoyable for People with a Disability

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balloons made into the numbers 5 and zero floating in the sunlight next to some orange balloons with trees in the background

TravelAbility Summit is dedicated to improving travel experiences for people with disabilities that will be held in San Francisco November 11-13, recently released the names of 50 technologies, products, and services that will help the travel industry level-up their accessibility. The 50 final products make travel easier for all and were based on the feedback of people with disabilities, technical experts and disability industry leaders. Through the process of vetting 200 products, we learned an important lesson: There is no one product that works for everyone, which at first can make choosing products for your customers overwhelming. But there is a common need for trusted advice. That’s where we knew we could help.

The number one question we get from the travel industry is, how do I get started with an accessibility plan—and how can I do it on a budget? Our advice is to start anywhere—hack the system and try whatever you think will work best for your hotel, destination, attraction or museum.

The hacks are an eclectic mix of tools and devices that range from a portable wheelchair ramp to a free app with 2 million volunteers who can become the ‘eyes’ of a traveler who is visually impaired. There are also larger, business-oriented hacks, such as TravelTripper, a platform for making a hotel’s booking and browsing experiences more accessible. The travel market is already exploding with requests for more accessible ways to book rooms, see cities and set out on adventures without barriers. When you have to get started somewhere, you get creative. The 50 Hacks is a great place to do both of those things.

For those who may be skeptical, think about this: the hotel or attraction that has thought ahead to meet the needs of a person with a disability will find the most loyal customers the travel industry could have. And we’ve hacked the process for you.

A final word about our methodology: Four members of our team examined websites and/or conducted interviews with executives over a 7-month period; conducted interviews with several special needs travel agents, media, and members of the disability and travel communities, often in-person at conferences and expo trade events. Additionally, we crowdsourced input and recommendations from the most popular disability media and blog posts using a series of Google keyword alerts. The team also had in-depth discussions with flight attendants, airport wheelchair attendants, and travelers who have disabilities who used the products themselves.

For a full list of hacks to help you get started on your accessibility journey, click here.

Why Are Airplane Bathrooms So Crappy?

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 “Nobody boy in wheelchair with someone pushing him. A travel blanket on his laplikes talking about using the bathroom, except maybe my two adolescent sons. But for wheelchair users planning trips involving flights, the ability (or lack thereof) to use an airplane bathroom (a.k.a. lavatory) can make or break their travel plans. While this post is intended for wheelchair users who haven’t flown yet as such, I consider myself a very seasoned traveler and I definitely learned something,” writes Spin the Globe’s Sylvia Longmire. Read Longmire’s expert guide to airplane bathrooms to help you determine how they fit (or don’t fit) into your travel plans.

OUR TAKE: As with most things travel-related, preparation and some research are required fo the best results. You can request an onboard aisle chair, making it easier to navigate once inside the plane. Southwest and JetBlue have made it part of their standard protocol to have them. If you are flying on a domestic flight, contact an airline within 48 hours of your flight to request one. According to the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA), the airline is required by law to provide one.     READ MORE

Some Airlines Are Still Damaging Wheelchairs at Ridiculously High Rate

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Senator Duckworth in a wheelchair at a. Democratic eventFirst, the good news: Since U.S. airlines began tracking and reporting the number of wheelchairs/mobility scooters damaged in December of 2018, there’s a clear improvement! But there’s still a lot of room for improvement. At TravelAbility Insider, we’ve been tracking the numbers and, in honor of the law’s most outspoken and effective advocate, Senator Tammy Duckworth, we’ve named it The Duckworth Wheelchair Damage Report. Here’s the short story:

American   7.2% to 4.68%
Frontier      5.31% to 2.31%
Jet Blue     4.01% to  1.39%
Southwest 6.46% to 1.28%

 

The Duckworth Wheelchair Damage Report

 

 

 

5 Accessibility Ideas Totally Worth Stealing

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a blind sea otter lifts his head while swimming in water at an aquariumTravelAbility Insider recently interviewed Lynn Walsh, accessibility and inclusion manager at John G. Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.  Her tips for staff training, best practices, and cross-pollinating ideas can be used for nearly any attraction or destination. Here they are:

  1. Be honest with visitors. If you’re “working on it”—whether it’s a ramp or a website change—let people know. Otherwise, the disability community is likely to assume that accessibility is not on your radar or that you are not interested in hearing their ideas. And don’t forget to let people know the resources and accommodations you do have—that accessible restroom may not be a big deal to you, but it’s huge to those who need it!
  2. Train your staff—all of your staff. From those who interact with guests on a daily basis, to those who are writing the grants or cleaning the facility—accessibility and inclusion are a part of everyone’s job. Training will provide the knowledge and confidence needed for all staff to work within their sphere of influence to create an accessible and inclusive environment for all.
  3. See your destination or attraction through someone else’s eyes. Find local User/Experts who are willing to share their feedback and ideas. Lynn has engaged numerous people from the disability community on various projects at the aquarium to learn from their expertise. Work with those who you’re creating the experience for – don’t assume to know what people with disabilities want or need.
  4. No need to reinvent the wheel. Engage with peers – share ideas and resources. Is there an Access Network in your location? Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium (CCAC) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower Chicago’s cultural spaces to become more accessible to visitors with disabilities. CCAC provides free professional development opportunities and other resources to cultural administrators in the Chicagoland area. Look for an Access Network in your area.
  5. Look for opportunities everywhere. Recently one of Shedd’s marine mammal trainers was inspired by Cruz, a totally blind sea lion that calls Shedd home. Cruz responds to audible and tactile cues, which made the trainer wonder if Cruz would respond to voices heard through an iPad. To our delight, Cruz does respond to the iPad cues – which means we can now take the sea lion experience on the road to those who can’t physically come to the aquarium due to illness or disability. And yes, that’s a photo of Cruz in the water at Shedd Aquarium.

 

OUR TAKE: Major museums and cultural institutions are substantially ahead of many other non-theme park attractions on accessibility as they have been conditioned to be responsive to the needs of their local disability communities and by doing so they are already prepared for tourists who are disabled.   Many, such as Shedd Aquarium, have “accessibility” or”diversity” directors, staff positions destined for future growth. Even tourism suppliers without a staff person dedicated to accessibility can deploy any or all of these practical and low-cost ideas on an ad hoc basis to level up their appeal to the disability their own disability community and tourists as well.