TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

advocacy

May 2026: TravelAbility Ambassador Update

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Kristy Durso is sitting in her wheelchair on the beach, smiling over her shoulder with the beautiful turquoise ocean in the background.

Update from Kristy Durso – our TravelAbility Ambassador representing TravelAbility and accessible travel in the greater world. 

There’s a through line in Kristy’s ambassador work this year, and she’s able to name it plainly: “It isn’t enough to have just an accessible hotel and an accessible experience. You have to have the transportation and the infrastructure to link it all together. You’ve got to be connecting all of the pieces or you don’t have an accessible destination.”

The hotels, the attractions, the transportation – you’ve got to be connecting all of those pieces together.

What Our Ambassador Has Been Up To

Huntington Beach with Wheel the World

You can add Huntington Beach to your list of Wheel the World destinations! Kristy was a part of the team sent to create promotional material. Her trip highlighted both the progress being made—and the gaps that remain.

Kristy was a keynote speaker for Host Agency Reviews. 

She’s continuing the initiative with a webinar with Mexperts, a group of travel advisors who specialize in Mexico all-inclusives.

Nebraska Governor’s Conference

Speaking at Nebraska’s Governor’s Conference gave Kristy positive take aways and  future direction. 

“The Nebraska area was super excited about accessibility as a concept, so it was really fun to be part of that.” 

Rural Roundup

Kristy was the keynote speaker in last year’s Rural Roundup in Nevada. This year she’s heading back to lead a deep dive into accessibility.

Connecting the Dots

At home, in Colorado Springs, Kristy continues to shape the future of accessibility. As a part of the advisory board, she’s been speaking up on accessibility and how to connect the many moving parts.

“One of the big things that we talked about was the transportation issue. My goal as the ambassador this year for accessibility, not just with TravelAbility but for accessibility, is to really focus on connecting the dots. The hotels, the attractions, the transportation – you’ve got to be connecting all of those pieces together.” 

Silos don’t work in accessibility and inclusion. Until we can get all of the pieces functioning together, we won’t have barrier-free destinations.

DOT Launches Campaign to Raise Awareness of Rights of Airline Passengers Who Use Wheelchairs

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A man in a wheelchair navigating a crowded airline terminal

The US Department of Transportation is marking the 37th anniversary of the Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) by initiating the #AccessibleAirTravel campaign to underscore the right of air travelers with disabilities to safe, dignified, and accessible air travel.

“Airline passengers with disabilities deserve to travel safely and with dignity,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “DOT is proud to partner with the aviation industry and members of the disability community to ensure that all travelers with disabilities know their rights.”

As part of the launch, the DOT emphasized some of the actions the Biden administration has taken or is taking to improve the air travel experience of individuals using wheelchairs, including:

  • To address many of the significant barriers facing passengers who use wheelchairs, the Department has initiated a rule proposing to make it an automatic violation of ACAA regulations for airlines to mishandle a passenger’s wheelchair.
  • In July 2023, DOT finalized a rule which requires airlines to make lavatories on new, single-aisle aircraft more accessible.Under this final rule, airlines are required to take various steps to improve the accessibility of these lavatories short of increasing their size in the short term.
  • DOT has begun laying the groundwork for a potential rule that would allow passengers to stay in their own wheelchairs when they fly. Read more.

Our TakeAway: We applaud the DOT’s new campaign and the actions it is taking to improve the air travel experience for passengers who use wheelchairs. But we have to wonder how much can be done to improve the accessibility of lavatories without increasing their size?

Plus-Size Travel Advocates Speak Out

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Jeff Jenkins, an African American male with cropped beard and glasses and JerVae Anthony, an African American female with hoop earings

Whatever size we are, we know the look. The one a large airline passenger receives from a seatmate when they arrive at their row. Sometimes the look is accompanied by an audible gasp. 

“Society has an anti-fat bias, and you can encounter it anywhere,” writes Cheyenne Davis in the essay “The Uneasy Truth About Traveling While Fat” in the online magazine thrillist. “Living in a world fueled by fatphobia creates unnecessary barriers, from limited clothing options to discrimination in medical care, employment, and relationships. According to the NIH, more than two in five adults live in a large body. And yet despite this fact, we continue to face daily challenges—including in travel, where inequities like the ones outlined below so often deny us access to the same life-changing experiences available to others.”

Jeff Jenkins, a National Geographic travel host and award-winning content creator, says that airlines can definitely do more to make flights accessible for everyone. “We are still waiting on the FAA to give dimensions for standard seat sizes for each aircraft,” he says. “We hope that they listen to us and make the seats wider.”

Throw in additional ableist and racial biases, and these roadblocks can escalate substantially. “Whenever I’ve visited Chicago, I’ve observed a recurring issue where Black disabled individuals, myself included, are left waiting for assistance for extended periods,” explains Jervae Dionne Anthony, artist and founder of Fat Black Liberation. “The available wheelchairs don’t cater to those with infinifat bodies, typically above size 32. It’s a struggle to survive a form of violence that often goes unnoticed and unaddressed.” Read more. 

Our Takeaway: The failure—and in some cases the refusal—to meet the needs of plus-size travelers is a serious accessibility issue for the entire industry. Beyond airline seats and wheelchairs, there are size problems with amusement park rides, hotel bed dimensions, zipline harnesses, and on and on. . . 

United Leads the Way with its Embrace of Braille and Other Navigational Aids

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Braille directions on the seat and row of a United Airlines plane.

For eight years running, United Airlines has been recognized as a Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion. No surprise then that they also play a leadership role in integrating accessibility into their product design. United is the first U.S. airline to incorporate Braille into its aircraft interiors. United has already equipped a dozen aircraft with Braille markings for individual rows and seat numbers, as well as lavatory interiors and exteriors. The airline anticipates outfitting its entire mainline fleet with Braille by the end of 2026.

The Braille initiative is just a first step. United is also collaborating with the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the American Council of the Blind (ACB), and other disability advocacy groups to investigate the application of other tactile navigational aids, such as raised letters, numbers, and arrows, throughout the cabin. Read more.

Our Takeaway: United’s incorporation of Braille and other navigational aids will relieve some of the stress of flying for millions of blind and low vision travelers. These features should become the industry standard.

Hotel Accessibility Reaches the Supreme Court

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A young white woman sitting in a chair in a hotel with a service dog at her feet. (Photo credit: Disability:IN.)

The Supreme Court is preparing to weigh in on two critical issues in the case of Acheson Hotels v. Laufer. The central issue is to what extent disabled travelers can hold hotels and other public accommodations accountable for failing to meet the standards of the ADA, including failure to describe their accessibility features accurately on their website. The second issue is whether a “tester” who has never stayed at the hotel has standing to bring a suit. “Being a tester in civil rights cases is an honored and necessary role,” writes Lucy Trieshmann of the ACLU. “It has evolved over the years, from Black patrons trying to enter a ‘whites only’ waiting room, to women applying for typically male jobs, to families applying to ‘singles only’ housing. In each case, the tester has no intention of taking the job or renting the housing — but, as a member of the class of people facing discrimination, can go to court to enforce civil rights laws.”

Trieshmann of the ACLU, who describes herself as a wheelchair user with multiple disabilities, a number of examples from her own experience of how hotels fail disabled travelers: “Hotels often take a kitchen sink approach to accessibility, throwing in a visual accommodation here and a mobility accommodation there, but failing to provide full accessibility to either group. This overlooks the point of accessibility, effectively making the room useless to many disabled travelers.” Read more.

Our takeaway. The ADA is clear on the responsibility of hotels and other public accommodations to make their facilities accessible for disabled travelers AND to let visitors to their websites know that their venue is accessible. Travelers with disabilities need easy access to specific information about the hotel’s accessibility features in order to determine whether they will be able to get to and use the room.

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