TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

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Launchpad Update: The Scoop on Our Mentoring Event on November 11

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illustration of a red rocket launching and the words travel ability launchpad: boosting innovation in travel and accessibility

LaunchPad: At-a-Glance Look at Innovations and How they can be used.

LaunchPad will bring together socially conscious entrepreneurs, who have created products and services that  make travel easier for people with disabilities, and established travel end users—hotels, airports, attractions, and destinations— “The goal is to connect entrepreneurs with new distribution channels in the travel industry and to help jumpstart new accessibility initiatives,” says Jake Steinman, founder and CEO of both LAUNCHPAD and TravelAbility Summit.  The accessible travel market has been estimated to be in excess of 17 billion dollars* annually and growing at a rapid pace as Baby Boomers age into a disability.

Our Top 5 Most Popular Stories Of 2019 Highlight the Hottest Products and the Secrets of Hotel Accessibility

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woman smiling in a tee with suitcases behind her and on her lap waiting at a train station in a wheelchair
Although it didn’t make it into the top five, this TravelAbility Update: What We’ve Learned So Far (Sept. 26) came close. To discover what we discovered, READ MORE. 

OUR TAKE: Every one of these posts helps to make the business case for accessibility—no surprise there. But you will also be interested to see the variety of products, tech, expert ideas and corporate plans out there. There’s a nugget of usable information in all five of these:

1.    Two Companies Disrupting the Wheelchair Rental Market for Good (Sept.5) READ MORE

2.    Top 10 Signs That Accessibility Is Going Mainstream (Sept 26) READ MORE 

3. Airlines, Hotels, Attractions Prove Disability Inclusion Isn’t Just the Right Thing to Do—It’s Great for Business (Aug. 8) READ MORE

4.    50 “Accessible Hacks”​ to Make Travel More Enjoyable for People with a Disability (Aug. 8) READ MORE

5.    EXPERT Q&A: The Secret to Creating a 5-Star Accessible Hotel Website on a 2-Star Budget (Aug.8) READ MORE

Introducing Our Easy-to-Navigate Index Organized by Topics You Care About

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There are more than 140 articles organized by category on the right hand side of our home page.

Check out the categories on the right-hand side of our home page at TravelAbility Insider.  (Note: If you are using a mobile phone the categories of the index will appear as you scroll down, starting Accessibility.

There you will find the ‘A to V ‘ of recent stories by category, from Autism and Airports to Trends and Vision. Our mission is to connect you with both the disability community and travel experts and advisors. Sharing knowledge like this creates a unique ecosystem where accessibility travel can thrive.

OUR TAKE: There’s a lot of blogs and newsletters out there about travel and accessibility—but many can be complicated, or worse—outdated. Thanks to our expert Advisory Board and staff, we’ve sourced the most trustworthy, relevant information for you. The search to understand the next big trend in travel is over—or maybe it’s just beginning! Either way, we’re here to help.

Travelability Insider’s Exclusive Interviews with Disability Experts

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exlusive interviews photos of Nate and John Sage

OUR TAKE: When we rolled out TravelAbilityInsider, the companion to our upcoming Summit in November, we did a deep dive into what we didn’t know and found outstanding experts to help. Many have joined our diverse advisory board and made commitments to be at the TravelAbility Summit. Their subject expertise ranges from making a website accessible to creating an itinerary for all abilities. Find exclusive interviews here and get ready for more learning and fun on November 12-13 in San Francisco.

REGISTER HERE

TravelAbility Update: What We’ve Learned So Far

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special update

by Tom Berrigan, Managing Editor, InBound Report

Jake Steinman, editor-in-chief of INBOUND, as well as the founder of a portfolio of the popular tour and travel industry events and conferences acquired earlier this year by Connect Travel, has been concentrating on a new project—the first TravelAbility Summit, a highly focused conference dealing with the issue of accessible travel. He launched the effort a year ago, and the first Summit will be staged Nov. 12-13 in San Francisco. Steinman recently participated in a panel discussion on the subject of accessible travel at the U.S. Travel Association’s recent annual ESTO conference in Austin, which brings together DMO leaders from all kinds of destination organizations. INBOUND talked with Steinman about his ESTO experience and how the TravelAbility Summit is shaping up. Here are excerpts of our recent conversation. 

READ MORE