TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

accessibility

Don’t Miss Out on Expert Advice at TravelAbility Summit! Meet A Few of Our Superstar Speakers

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Meet two of our superstar speakers—and watch for more updates on our speaker’s page. There’s really a lot of talent and expertise in our lineup. Start here:  

Eric Lipp is the founder and executive director of the Open Doors Organization (ODO), which commissioned groundbreaking research on accessible travel identifying the untapped market at 17.3 billion dollars in 2015. He started ODO after personally experiencing the restrictions that people with disabilities face in everyday life. (Eric was diagnosed with Von Hippel Lindau disease at age 30, which resulted in a tumor growth on his spinal cord, ultimately limiting his mobility.) In 2014, Open Doors launched Open Taxis, a centralized taxi dispatch for wheelchair accessible vehicles in Chicago with over 350 vehicles. Passengers can either call Open Taxis for service or use its smartphone app that includes key features such as estimated wait time and an estimated fare quote.

Marc Garcia is president and CEO of Visit Mesa. Under Marc’s leadership Visit Mesa has become the country’s first-ever destination marketing organization designated as a Certified Autism Center by the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards (IBCCES). As a parent of a child on the autism spectrum, Marc has raised the bar in the city of Mesa by requesting partner businesses in the hospitality community follow their lead to undergo autism training. Guest-facing staff at Mesa businesses are actively being approached and will complete autism sensitivity and awareness training within the next six months. Prior to joining Visit Mesa, Marc was vice president of Visitor Marketing & Community Development for the Greater Phoenix Visitors & Convention Bureau.

photo of Suzanne Boda courtesy American Airlines PR;  photo of Marc Garcia courtesy IP Photography

You can find out more about all of the speakers on our site, here. 

REGISTER NOW for the two-day event in San Francisco this November! REGISTER NOW

 

 

 

Virgin Hotel in Chicago First U.S. Hotel to Use New Accessibility Rating System

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Ad for a virgin hotel in Chicago that says step in! Outdoor shot of people entering hotel with souvenirsOne of his biggest challenges faced by anyone with accessibility needs is finding information on the accessibility of hotels that they can truly trust, writes Richard Branson, founder, and CEO of Virgin Hotels. Branson, almost always ahead of the curve, found the solution in Mobility Mojo, which specializes in detailed hotel accessibility assessments. According to the story, there are more than a billion people globally with a disability—and more than 50% of these people choose not to travel because of a lack of information on accessibility.  By using the website tool on Virgin Hotel sites, travelers can easily see the available accessibility features upfront. See an example of the travel service rating of a Chicago Virgin Hotel, here.  

Our take: Digital solutions such as Mobility Mojo are on the rise, as are people with disabilities looking for answers. This particular solution is clear and easy to understand and offers and an overall rating for people who don’t need to know every detail. Congrats to Virgin Hotels for being a trailblazer! 

 

 

Two Companies Disrupting the Wheelchair Rental Market for Good

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woman looks at art in museum while sitting in a mobility device by Whill/ScootaroundPeople that rely on mobility devices will no longer have to stress about having to travel with a wheelchair because they will be able to rent a personal EV (through an app) at the airport and/or final destination, thanks to the merger of two cutting-edge companies. WHILL – makers of the cutting-edge Model Ci and Model A Intelligent Personal Electric Vehicles (EVs), which won the CES Innovation Award at the Computer Electronics Show in 2018, and Scootaround a leading wheelchair and scooter rentals solutions company servicing 2500 locations in North America. Together, they will be the first to provide a worldwide Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) model. “This will improve the current travel landscape for mobility device users by increasing their freedom and independence,” says Justin Gagnon, vice president of sales and marketing for WHILL/Scootaround. Gagnon offered TravelAbility Insider some interesting insights about the market:

  • Currently, the company is piloting six trials worldwide, two of which, Dallas and Winnipeg, are in North America. In Winnipeg, Delta Airline agents offer disabled passengers who are awaiting connections the opportunity to test drive a WHILL Ci so they can maneuver around the airport independently.
  • WHILL wheelchairs appeal to cruise line companies as they are smaller, sleeker and designed to maneuver around small spaces, which means they may also be used in non-ADA staterooms.

Our take: Vertical integration comes to the airport wheelchair rental market as the demand for motorized wheelchair rentals rises significantly. This disruption will not only require less staff but will also give travelers who need mobility options more independence.

photo courtesy WHILL/Scootaround