The Intersection of Travel and Disability
Dating while disabled comes with a unique set of challenges. It’s something Jacqueline Child, 28, knows all too well as she deals with chronic illness. She and her sister Alexa Child, 32, hope to combat stigma with their new dating app Dateability. By and for the disabled community, it launched Oct. 21. Will it bridge some gaps? Read More.
In celebration of Disability Pride Month, we invite you to join us for a curated coffee tasting and food pairing with a Starbucks barista —all while learning about Aira at your local community Starbucks!
At Starbucks, tasting and sharing coffee is a daily ritual. Join Aira and other members of the blind and low vision community and together we will explore the four coffee tasting steps – smell, slurp, locate and describe – to discover the rich and complex flavors of coffee.
And, learn more about Aira, a service that provides blind and low vision people with access to visual information, and how Aira is one way Starbucks is creating accessible experiences in their stores.
With assistance from an Aira Agent, coffee fans can:
And the coolest part? Starbucks offers the Aira service for free in all U.S. stores. Starbucks and Aira are committed to providing accessible experiences in all Starbucks stores. Join us to learn more about Aira, enhance your independence, enjoy a coffee, and get to know your fellow community members.
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Chicago
1:00 PM local time
Starbucks North & Damen Reserve Bar
1588 North Milwaukee Avenue
Chicago, IL 60622
Register today
Phoenix
1:00 PM local time
Starbucks Community Store
730 West Camelback Road
Phoenix, AZ 85013
Register today
Tuesday, August 2, 2022
Los Angeles
1:00 PM local time
Starbucks Watts Community Store
2449 East Century Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90002
Register today
New York
1:00 PM local time
Starbucks Brooklyn Community Store
774 Broadway, Brooklyn, NY 02116
Register today
Thursday, August 4, 2022
Bethesda
1:00 PM local time
Location to be added
Bethesda, MD
Register today
Dallas
1:00 PM local time
Starbucks Community Store
1700 Pacific Avenue, Unite 150, Dallas, TX 75201
Register today
Friday, August 5, 2022
Washington, D.C.
1:00 PM local time
Anacostia Community Store
2228 Martin Luther King Jr Ave SE, Washington, DC 02116
Register today
Tuesday, August 9, 2022
Seattle, Washington
1:00 PM local time
White Center Community Store
16th Ave SW + 100th St, Seattle, WA 02116
Register today
Penny Zibula, a native of Montreal, Canada, grew up blind but developed a deep desire to explore the world through books.
In an article for Travel Awaits, Peggy recounted the first destination she had an interest in visiting – Cornwall – a desire inspired by Susan Howatch’s 1971 novel, Penmarric.
After finishing college, her uncle sent her on a trip to Israel and, though she was legally blind, she remembers it fondly. “I can still feel the ancient stones of the Western Wall of the destroyed Second Temple of Jerusalem beneath my fingertips,” she writes. Her senses on that trip were alive, as she recalls “The sounds of haggling in Arabic and Hebrew, along with the smells of cooking food, garbage, and sweat intermingled to create an atmosphere that was both disturbing and enticing.”
To read more about Peggy’s experiences as a blind traveler, read her story in Travel Awaits.
“Sightseeing is not reserved exclusively for those with good eyesight,” according to Responsible Travel. “There are many more ways to ‘see’ a landscape, a historic building, a plate of food in a restaurant, than with just your eyes.”
Responsible Travel is an “activist company” that offers tours designed to work with travelers and the planet, with the goal of making a positive impact on both.
The company says that, for blind and low vision travelers, “there’s no reason that being visually impaired need hold you back.” The company works to maximize the sensory experience for travelers, no matter whether they are visiting India, Japan, South Africa or other destinations.
To read more about the company’s work in making trips accessible for blind and partially sighted travelers, visit the Responsible Travel website.
It’s not often a new language emerges. But in the last 15 years, a new language was created in the Pacific Northwest: Protactile. Developed by DeafBlind people, the Protactile language places an emphasis on touch, which is a method of communication that many DeafBlind people prioritize.
Jelica Nuccio, one of the creators on this new language, recently moved to Monmouth, Oregon. There, the U.S. Department of Education’s Rehabilitation Services Administration recently awarded Western Oregon University with a $2.1 million grant that will be used to train Protactile language interpreters.
DeafBlind people like Nuccio have traditionally used variations on sign language to communicate, but it can be easy to miss important details in a language that is designed to be seen. That’s a shortcoming in traditional languages that Protactile aims to overcome, restoring the depth of interpersonal communication to the language used by DeafBlind people.
To learn more about Protactile language, see the article from Oregon Public Broadcasting.
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