TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

Adaptive Recreation

New Adaptive Sports Center Opens in Ohio

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Ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Adaptive Sports Connection lodge, with a cheering crowd and adaptive bikes holding the pink ribbon.

“If I can do this, I can do anything!” Those were the poster words that resonated with Rosemarie Rosetti after conquering the scariest moment of her life: flying down Mad River Mountain on a monoski after a spinal cord injury left her paralyzed from the waist down.

While not as terrifying, her latest achievement brings her story full circle: helping open the Adaptive Sports Connection Adventure and Wellness Lodge along the Scioto River in Ohio. 

The new ASC will serve veterans, children, and adults with disabilities and their families by providing a welcoming hub for water sports, adaptive biking, events, and community gatherings, giving people with disabilities greater opportunities for adventure, competition, connection and confidence. 

The $10 million project was shaped in part by input from athletes and accessibility advocates like Rosemarie and Mark Leder, who reviewed the plans with ASC leaders and architects and helped support fundraising efforts. Accessibility features go beyond ADA to include automatic doors, exterior access to companion care restrooms and showers, and other amenities that create an atmosphere of welcome. More than a new facility, the Lodge represents a new chapter for Adaptive Sports Connection, creating a space where athletes and families can discover what’s possible when access to adventure is built in from the start.

Read Rosemarie’s full announcement.

Learn more about the ASC.

Accessible Hunting? South Dakota Just Put It on the Map.

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Hunter in blaze orange using a wheelchair in an autumn forest, holding a shotgun.

We’ve learned where to look for accessible hotels: match your needs through Wheel the World’s booking platform.

We can find short term rentals using things like BecomingrentABLE or filters through Airbnb.

We can even build loose travel itineraries based on the experiences of other disabled travelers.

But what if we’re looking for something a little more niche? What if we wanted to continue our annual hunting trip with our buddies, after a major spinal cord injury?

Accessible travel information doesn’t have to start with your biggest attractions. It can start with the things people already come to your destination to do.

That’s where we tend to hit a roadblock.

Not in South Dakota.

South Dakota’s Game, Fish & Parks website has a page dedicated to Accessible Hunting Areas, opening the gate to opportunities that feel impossible to find.

The state has identified specific Game Production Areas where hunters with a disabled hunter permit can use all-terrain vehicles or other vehicles on designated roads and trails. Some locations have accessible hunting blinds. Others have designated trails that provide vehicle access to areas where hunters can pursue deer, pheasant, turkey, waterfowl and other game.

DMO’s should pay attention. Not only is this website easy information on accessible outdoor adventures for visitors, it’s also an example of what an accessibility landing page could look like, detailing locations and what to expect. There are caveats, and South Dakota is upfront about them. The areas are unattended, terrain varies, not every portion of a Game Production Area will be accessible, and hunters are responsible for determining whether conditions are safe for them. That transparency is what makes this page so useful.

Accessible travel information doesn’t have to start with your biggest attractions. It can start with the things people already come to your destination to do.

Hunt. Fish. Camp. Golf. Birdwatch. Paddle. Attend a rodeo. Visit a shooting range. Go stargazing. Cheer for a local sports team.

Somewhere in your destination, there may already be accessible infrastructure, adaptive programs, special permits or designated access that travelers simply don’t know exists.

This is an opportunity where you don’t have to create something new. Find what already exists, document it clearly, and make sure the people who need it can find it.

↪Check out the website.

TravelAbility Ambassador Update with Kristy Durso

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TravelAbility Ambassador Kristy Durso had a full summer with speaking engagements, industry connections, advocacy projects, and a growing list of initiatives designed to make travel more accessible.

Kristy Durso, seated in a wheelchair, poses with a group of eight people and a golden retriever in a ballroom.

Outside Days

At Outside Days in Denver, Kristy was the only wheelchair user represented outside of two disability-focused sessions. Rather than letting that lack of representation define the experience, she used her seat at the table to challenge the industry and their emphasis on intentional communities.

During a session on data and consumer tracking, she asked, “Are you tracking your clients with disabilities? Are you tracking your visitors with disabilities when they come?” The answer was no.

Later, during a conversation about building intentional communities, she raised a bigger question: “The first thing you lose when you have an accident and become disabled, you have an illness that makes you disabled, or you have a child born with disabilities, you lose your community.”

She continued, “As you sit here and you talk about these intentional communities, I have to wonder: Is there a place for me?”

The response was significant. Kristy connected with industry leadership and is now hoping to return next year as a speaker in the conference’s regular programming, rather than only disability-focused sessions.

She also began working with more than a dozen adaptive outdoor recreation programs in Colorado, connecting them with mainstream tourism providers. The goal is to make it easier for families with mixed abilities to discover and book adaptive recreation without navigating a maze of separate reservations and providers.

Travel Nevada Rural Round Up

At the Travel Nevada Rural Round Up, where she returned for a second year, Kristy’s breakout session sparked action. Two grant organizations told her they were changing their criteria to give greater preference to disability-focused businesses. 

One attendee even returned with news that he had received a grant based on an idea Kristy gave him at last year’s conference. Working with a dark-sky site, she had suggested 3D models of constellations so visitors who are blind or have low vision could better understand what they are experiencing. The proposal received automatic approval.

National Lieutenant Governors Association Conference

At the National Lieutenant Governors Association conference, Kristy says she was given “10 minutes to change the way they think, and I think I succeeded.” She later accepted a keynote invitation for the Louisiana Governor’s Conference and has already been invited to participate in the upcoming Florida Governor’s Conference.

Outside Agents

At the Outside Agents conference, where Kristy was a keynote speaker, she organized an informal dinner conversation, where 27 travel advisors showed up to learn more about accessible travel. 

“As you sit here and you talk about these intentional communities, I have to wonder: Is there a place for me?”

Kristy Durso

Building Bridges Across the Travel Industry

Kristy’s advocacy is also producing tangible industry connections. She introduced Ignite Adaptive Sports to Hero Door Opener, which has since been purchased for the facility, and connected Royal Caribbean with Freedom Tracks for potential beach access on a private island.

She presented her airline and hotel SOP protocols to United Airlines for consideration and created both a booklet and web-based version of hotel protocols to help front desk staff quickly understand how to accommodate travelers with disabilities.

At the Schoolhouse Hotel Accessibility Innovation Showcase, Kristy served as MC. 

Kristy led a disABILITYsa webinar and had the opportunity to talk with physical therapy students through Regis University.

She is also pushing the travel insurance industry to address wheelchair and prosthetic coverage. “Airlines are going to continue breaking wheelchairs,” she told insurance representatives. “If we can get big businesses like you guys behind us, pressure on the airlines to do better, rather than it just being individuals, I think we can actually create movement.”

What’s Next

Kristy’s calendar isn’t slowing down. By the time this hits your inbox, she’ll have wrapped up four days of content creation in Fort Lauderdale and the Florida Governor’s Conference. Next up is work in Huntington Beach and Anaheim, the All Wheels Up Conference in Colorado Springs, and Access the Skies by PVA, where she’ll help wheelchair users prepare for air travel.

“I don’t want to appeal to just people with disabilities,” Kristy says. “My goal with anything I do is to bridge the gap and cross over between the two in ways that make people laugh and think.”

Innovation of the Month: Freedom Trax

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Off-roading without leaving your wheelchair? Sounds impossible, but thanks to Freedom Trax any manual wheelchair on the market can now go wherever it wants.

Two men in manual wheelchairs fitted with Freedom Trax motorized tracks fist bump on a dirt trail with mountains in the background, demonstrating the off-road attachment in use on rugged terrain.

What is this Freedom Trax Thing?

When I first learned about these tank-style wheels that you can roll onto in your own chair, without having to transfer, it sounded too good to be true. When TravelAbility Ambassador, Kristy Durso, shared her vowel renewal photos of her rolling through the sand it was like science fiction becoming reality. 

Created by Erin and Dan Livingston of Tour Engineering in Golden, Colorado, Freedom Trax has opened up beaches, trails, snow, gravel, and other terrain that can be difficult or impossible to navigate in a traditional wheelchair. With backgrounds in engineering and manufacturing, the couple set out to tackle a problem that wheelchair users encounter again and again: traditional wheelchair wheels work well on pavement, but struggle just about anywhere else.

At its heart, Freedom Trax is about changing the question from “Is this terrain accessible?” to “Where do you want to go?”

The Problem it Solves

Their solution was a motorized track system that attaches to a manual wheelchair, transforming it into an off-road vehicle without requiring the user to transfer into a different chair. Instead of replacing the wheelchair, Freedom Trax works with it, using tank-inspired tracks to navigate terrain where standard wheels can sink or get stuck.

What started as an engineering solution has grown into a product used by wheelchair users across the world. Today, Erin and Dan still manufacture every Freedom Trax in-house in Golden, with a mission to make more of the world accessible and help people “seek the road less traveled.”

Instead of rolling from one accessible place to another, Freedom Trax users can now roll into just about any experience.

Use Cases

  • Outdoor recreation: Explore beaches, hiking trails, parks, campgrounds, fields, and other natural spaces.
  • Travel & Tourism: Bring your own wheelchair off the pavement and into destinations where traditional wheelchair wheels may struggle.
  • Adaptive sports: Freedom Trax can support activities including fishing, kayaking, skiing, surfing, and other outdoor adventures.
  • Everyday mobility: Navigate uneven grass, gravel, snow, and other challenging surfaces closer to home.
  • Families: Give wheelchair users more opportunities to participate alongside family and friends instead of watching an outdoor activity from the sidelines.

Freedom Trax Pricing

Freedom Trax currently offers two models. The FT 1 PRO is designed for standard manual wheelchairs, with tracks positioned underneath the chair for a narrower footprint, while the FTX offers additional stability and is designed to accommodate pediatric, tilt-in-space, and standard wheelchairs. 

Both models are joystick controlled, reach speeds of 4–5 mph, and offer up to eight miles of range per charge. The FT 1 PRO is currently priced at $7,999, while the FTX is $7,799

At its heart, Freedom Trax is about changing the question from “Is this terrain accessible?” to “Where do you want to go?”

Rio Mobility’s Firefly is Expanding Accessible Adventure Travel for Wheelchair Users

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A person in a manual wheelchair uses the Rio Mobility Firefly, a red and black motorized front-wheel attachment, while gripping the handlebars against a neutral gray background.

For wheelchair users, joining a bike tour, cruising a boardwalk, or keeping up on a family outing can require far more planning,and far more compromise, than most destinations realize. Rio Mobility is changing that.

The company first caught the attention of the disability community with the Dragonfly, the industry’s first attachable handcycle. Lightweight, portable, and designed for everyday wheelchairs, it gave users a faster, easier way to navigate the world without replacing the chair they already relied on.

That innovation evolved into Rio Mobility’s flagship product: the Firefly.

The Rio Mobility Firefly, a bright green motorized front-wheel attachment, connected to a manual wheelchair against a white background.
The Firefly

Part power assist, part adventure vehicle, the Firefly attaches directly to a manual wheelchair, transforming it into a powered ride capable of traveling 12–13 miles per charge at speeds up to 12 mph. Five speed settings let riders choose the pace that works best for them, while an optional second battery can double the range for longer outings.

The Firefly creates a simple way for wheelchair users to participate in wheeled experiences that have traditionally been difficult to access, from bicycle tours and waterfront rides to scooter and Segway-style excursions.

Now the company is expanding the concept even further with the eDragonfly — a hybrid electric and manual handcycle that blends exercise with powered assistance.

The Rio Mobility eDragonfly, a hybrid electric and manual handcycle attachment, connected to a manual wheelchair against a white background.
The eDragonfly

The Firefly creates a simple way for wheelchair users to participate in wheeled experiences that have traditionally been difficult to access, from bicycle tours and waterfront rides to scooter and Segway-style excursions. For destinations and tour operators looking to expand inclusion, it’s a practical solution with immediate impact.

At $2,649, the Firefly sits in a price range that makes it more attainable than many adaptive recreation devices, while still opening the door to a dramatically different travel experience.

Rio Mobility’s focus is refreshingly straightforward: lightweight design, broad wheelchair compatibility, competitive pricing, and responsive customer support. In an industry where accessibility solutions are often bulky, expensive, or overcomplicated, that simplicity stands out.

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