TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Transportation

Visit Lauderdale Expands Its Embrace of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower; Its Convention Center is First in North America to Adopt the Program

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Logo for US chapter of Hidden Disabilities Sunflower includes a close up of a sunflower and an American flag

Arriving at an unfamiliar convention center can be a confusing experience for anyone but particularly for travelers with disabilities, hidden or visible. The Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center is employing a range of tools to make sure all travelers feel welcome from the moment they pass through the door. The new approach represents a first-of-its-kind partnership with the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower.

The convention center is adding a variety of cues to indicate when someone needs special assistance at the facility. A permanent space will be dedicated to providing a person with a hidden disability or a traveling companion various Sunflower products, such as a lanyard, badge, wristband or pin.  And all convention center employees will be trained on how to spot and help someone with a hidden disability.

The initiative is just the latest chapter in Visit Lauderdale’s proactive moves to create a warm and inclusive welcome for every traveler.  The Sunflower, for example, has been incorporated into Visit Lauderdale’s accessible tourism marketing for the past two years and was subsequently adopted by Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. 

“Visit Lauderdale is committed to providing everyone a safe and supportive environment and has long championed inclusion and accessibility tourism by removing all barriers to a quality experience for everyone,” said Richard Gray, senior vice president of Inclusion and Accessibility at Visit Lauderdale. “We embraced the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower program as soon as we learned of it and couldn’t be prouder that our newly renovated and expanded convention center is the very first on the continent to implement the program.” Read more.

 Our TakeAway: Credit Visit Lauderdale for the foresight to realize that their convention center will now not only be accessible for meetings and conventions, but also for the numerous local events and festivals that use the convention center.   Credit Sunflower creators for coming up with an image that is simultaneously subtle and powerful. The growth of the Sunflower is one of the accessible travel industry’s most promising trends.

Wheel the World Partners with Visit Florida to Scale Accessibility Audits

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Woman using a wheelchair beside a pool and a fountain along with logos of Visit Florida and Wheel the World

Visit Florida announced at the Florida Governors meeting in October that it is launching an ad co-op program to finance Wheel the World site assessments at 30 hotels, attractions, POI’s or dining locations in each region. Watch a video of the announcement.  

Wheel the World’s deliverables include not only assessments, but also training through their online academy and online marketing through their highly targeted database as well as their social media channels.

Our TakeAway: This initiative was originally one of the four pilot programs that were featured at this year’s Summit in which three Florida DMO’s (Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, and The Palm Beaches) participated.  Following the expansion announcement, seven other destinations signed up.  This is another unique example of Visit Florida’s role as an industry thought leader—along with WtW’s growing reputation for excellence in accessibility site assessments. We hope to see other states follow Florida’s lead. Hey, New York and California, are you listening?

Visit Florida partners with UK Travel Industry Mag to Offer Online Accessibility Training Seminar for Agents

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Information about the webinar on accessible travel, which includes a reference to a free on-demand viewing option

London-based TTG hosted its first webinar on accessible travel last month in association with Visit Florida. An on-demand recording of the webinar is available for free download. Speakers included:

  • Lynne Kirby, managing director, Enable Holidays
  • Monique Jarrett, model, influencer and diversity advocate
  • Richard Thompson, co-founder, Inclu Travel
  • Narelle McDougall, general manager, Amilla Maldives

The opening session featured a presentation by Visit Florida detailing what the Sunshine State is doing to make its tourism industry more accessible and inclusive. Read more.

Our TakeAway: Smart idea for Visit Florida to tap into the reach of TTG to share their insights and experience on the journey toward more inclusive travel. 

DMO DIY Dept: Travel Oregon Shows How You Can Create Your Own TravelAbility Summit

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A group of 30+ Oregon DMO employees wearing their summit badges beneath a "Welcome to Oregon" headline set against an image of an evergreen tree on a hilltop

If you attended the TravelAbility Summit in Savannah in August, you were probably just as likely to meet someone from the Northwest as the Deep South. Oregonians seemed to be everywhere. And they were. Travel Oregon brought a posse of 34 people to Georgia, seizing the opportunity to create a kind of Summit-within-the-Summit.

“It worked out well for the state,” said Kevin Wright, VP of Marketing for Travel Oregon. “We brought the attendees, and they did the work and now we’ll be one of the most accessible states in the country.” Read more.

Our TakeAway: It sounds like Oregon is laying down a challenge. Next year’s summit in San Francisco provides a great opportunity for other states to follow Oregon’s lead and bring an even larger delegation. Competition aside, it’s a smart idea to leverage the national event to foster state-level collaboration.

Plus-Size Travel Advocates Speak Out

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Jeff Jenkins, an African American male with cropped beard and glasses and JerVae Anthony, an African American female with hoop earings

Whatever size we are, we know the look. The one a large airline passenger receives from a seatmate when they arrive at their row. Sometimes the look is accompanied by an audible gasp. 

“Society has an anti-fat bias, and you can encounter it anywhere,” writes Cheyenne Davis in the essay “The Uneasy Truth About Traveling While Fat” in the online magazine thrillist. “Living in a world fueled by fatphobia creates unnecessary barriers, from limited clothing options to discrimination in medical care, employment, and relationships. According to the NIH, more than two in five adults live in a large body. And yet despite this fact, we continue to face daily challenges—including in travel, where inequities like the ones outlined below so often deny us access to the same life-changing experiences available to others.”

Jeff Jenkins, a National Geographic travel host and award-winning content creator, says that airlines can definitely do more to make flights accessible for everyone. “We are still waiting on the FAA to give dimensions for standard seat sizes for each aircraft,” he says. “We hope that they listen to us and make the seats wider.”

Throw in additional ableist and racial biases, and these roadblocks can escalate substantially. “Whenever I’ve visited Chicago, I’ve observed a recurring issue where Black disabled individuals, myself included, are left waiting for assistance for extended periods,” explains Jervae Dionne Anthony, artist and founder of Fat Black Liberation. “The available wheelchairs don’t cater to those with infinifat bodies, typically above size 32. It’s a struggle to survive a form of violence that often goes unnoticed and unaddressed.” Read more. 

Our Takeaway: The failure—and in some cases the refusal—to meet the needs of plus-size travelers is a serious accessibility issue for the entire industry. Beyond airline seats and wheelchairs, there are size problems with amusement park rides, hotel bed dimensions, zipline harnesses, and on and on. . .