The Intersection of Travel and Disability
The most reasonable explanation for ramps is that they were intended to help mobility-impaired visitors access the spaces that they needed to experience religious healing. The Greeks built these spaces for disabled people so that their target visitors could access them. Read more, here.
Seyfarth, a prominent Washington firm, has a series of three videos, each only a few minutes in length, that illustrate 30 tips to help improve accessibility. Find them, here.
Getting over the crappy horror of Covid-19, we expect marketers will want to make the world better for all. In the future, our work will have purpose and business motivation baked into its model. The world got a warp-speed technical update during the pandemic—and that will continue in the recovery phase, too. It’s a movement for the future that will generate revenue and build opportunity. You’ll find this issue packed with links to learn more superstars like the author of Being Heumann and star of Crip Camp, plus actionable ideas and content from industry insiders. —Jake Steinman, Founder, TravelAbility Summit
To learn and share more information with colleagues about the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), we are sharing the link to their FAQ.
(Oakland, CA, June 8, 2020) While some travel industry conferences and events are adapting and embracing virtual attendance, many are scaling back, canceling, or rescheduling to 2021. As the industry’s only disability-focused conference, the TravelAbility Summit team, supporters, and advisory board believe that the destination and disability-focused education, insights, and networking that takes place at this event is essential for the tourism industry and that the conference will go on.
Customizable Attendance Options
With a variety of customizable attendance options via the in-person/virtual attendee hybrid model, the TravelAbility Summit is further reinforcing its slogan, All Means All. The conference’s 2020 location, Orlando, Florida, provides easy access for many considering attending in-person and virtual event options elevate opportunities for European destination marketing organizations and others across the US to participate.
The Best Online Experience
“Over the past two months, our team has spent hours of screen time attending virtual conferences ranging from technology to education to comedy clubs, evaluating new Zoom-like platforms that best capture the experience of live events.” said Jake Steinman, founder of TravelAbility Summit. “And, we’ll be applying the best of the best of what we’ve found to our event and openly sharing the results with the industry.”
Turnkey Platforms, Innovative Tech
The online conference will serve as a case study for travel industry meeting planners who don’t have the time to research and evaluate all the of new self-service turnkey platforms and innovative technology that have been released. A few highlights include…
Broader Reach
According to the Convention Industry Council (CIC*) $115 Bn of the $263 bn in direct spending of meeting in the U.S. is travel and tourism-related. Leading trade associations believe that virtual trade events will have a permanent role as a complement to broaden the reach for those who cannot attend in person.
Case Study: What Works, What Doesn’t
“We’re willing to do our small part to help the meetings industry, which has been decimated by the pandemic, understand what works and what doesn’t,” said Steinman. “While we understand that some of our ideas may fall flat, we’re willing to openly share our experience afterward to help the industry rise again, as planners may not have the time to do the due diligence or the appetite for risk.”
*(CIC summary here).
For more information go to TravelAbility Summit 2020, Find up to date news on TravelAbility Insider
Contact: Jake Steinman jake@travelabilitysummit.com
Before writer Brad McCannell explains five architectural changes that work for everyone, he points out his pet peeve. That would be when someone he is meeting with about building accessibility says, ‘I’m already accessible because my building meets code’. His story focuses on making meaningful changes to buildings. Read his full post, here.
OUR TAKE: A few facts to keep in mind when planning accessibility design in the age of concurrent pandemics, wildfires, tornadoes, and murderous hornet invasions. First, you’d best have an emergency plan for everyone, including people with disabilities. (The ADA law doesn’t stipulate that you must.) Second, implementing a design that’s accessible for all should not only about wheelchair access. Second, according to the Centers for Disease Control, while it’s true that 13.7% of people with disabilities use a wheelchair. It’s on you to think about agility, hearing, vision, and cognition, too. Roughly 30 million Americans said they had difficulty climbing stairs or used a wheelchair, cane, crutches, or walker according to the last nationwide census.
To read more on this topic, visit our archive of disability advocates, here.
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