TravelAbility Insider

The Intersection of Travel and Disability

TravelAbility Report: March 2019

People With Disabilities Want to Make Over the Travel Industry

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beard welcoming a woman to a boutique hotel she is smiling.The travel industry need not be afraid of the seemingly high cost or complicated business of accessibility, according to a recent piece in Forbes. Progress with accessibility can be achieved one tiny step at a time by asking visitors with a disability what can be done to make their experience more enjoyable.  Sometimes it’s a simple, but obvious service request that costs nothing like having check-in staff come out from behind the counter to onboard someone in a wheelchair, or it might be an inexpensive product or app that can fill the gap between legal compliance and pleasurable experiences.. 

OUR TAKE: Just like everyone else, the disability community wants to be heard. Listening to their needs conveys respect and eventually can result in incremental changes. In aggregate, these small changes will, over time, position hotels and attractions as ready to welcome the estimated 30% of the population who will have a disability in their lifetime. It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s the right business move to make now. 

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Why Do Service Dogs Get the Short End of the Stick?  

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It’s a common ocwoman kneeling next to Labrador who has a service collar on she is hugging the dog.currence. Someone rolls into a restaurant with a well behaved and vigorously trained service animal, and the hostess looks down with a smile and says, “I have to ask, is this a service animal?” “Yes” replies the hungry patron who just drove 2 hours to meet their friends here. “Ok, let me show you to your table.” The guest rolls to their seat, with the dog heeling obediently by their wheelchair. 

Moments later, the manager approaches, May I see your dog’s papers? Suddenly, what was supposed to be an enjoyable evening quickly evolves into an embarrassing and uncomfortable scene. While this is frustrating to those who need service animals for legitimate disabilities, the unfortunate proliferation of fake service animals is also frustrating to business owners, according to pushlivingadvisors.com

OUR TAKE: Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), privately owned businesses that serve the public, such as restaurants, are prohibited from discriminating against individuals with disabilities. The ADA requires these businesses to allow people with disabilities to bring their service animals onto business premises in whatever areas customers are generally allowed.

photo courtesy: Colorado Service Dogs 

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Yosemite’s Airstream Trailers May Be the Future of Accessible Camping

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Outdoor deck with chairs in the woods at back or side of home Opened early last month, AutoCamp Yosemite features 80 custom-built Airstream trailers, nestled on 35 wooded acres. The third property under the AutoCamp brand, this location offers a luxurious glamping experience for Yosemite visitors. Wheelchair access was taken into account from the get-go, reports Candy B. Harrington of EmergingHorizons.com. 

OUR TAKE: Most recently, Yosemite has been in the news for finally getting the rights to their history (more specifically, historic names of houses in the park) returned to them after a long trademark war. But that doesn’t mean they haven’t also kept an eye on the future. Building Autocamp shows a remarkable marriage of both historic lands and the latest needs of travelers.

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photo courtesy AutoCamp 

 

 

Will the Supreme Court Hear Accessible Website Case Over a $3 Coupon at Domino’s Pizza?   

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Domino's pizza box (closed) with a drink and sanitary wipe“Last fall, Jason McKee was bouncing around business ideas with two friends when they realized something: all three had a family member or friend with a disability, that made it difficult to access the internet,” according to a report in marketplace.org. The story goes on to say: “They soon discovered something else: people with disabilities, specifically those who are blind or visually impaired, were filing Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits against businesses over website accessibility issues. And many of them were winning. “

“We all got together and realized the size of this marketplace,” McKee said. “Basically, the entire internet has to be retrofit,” the story explains. “The Supreme Court is currently considering whether to take a web accessibility case brought by a man who is blind against the pizza chain Domino’s, for not making its website and mobile app accessible to him.”  

OUR TAKE: In most markets, you need both people focused on the little details and the people above, who can understand the bigger picture. This holds true for web accessibility. But in 2017, when the current administration abandoned its effort to evaluate whether new accessibility rules were “necessary and appropriate” it left both people with disabilities and the businesses being sued by them in a sort of no man’s land. The most positive outcome has been more companies cropping up to help businesses stay on top of their website and understand what needs to be done to help make the web accessible for all, no matter how slowly that process may go. Several of these experts will be speaking at TravelAbility Summit 2019 in November.

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Opinion: The #1 Problem Cities Should Tackle to Improve Accessibility

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Do the people who create technology for products that make cities ‘smart’ solicit direct feedback from the disability community? Do they know the obstacles people with disabilities face most often on a daily basis? No according to a new survey of 175 entrepreneurs in technology incubators showed that 43% of the respondents had a strong understanding of accessibility and inclusion in their own products…one third of the respondents were uncertain whether their technological products could be disabled-friendly, according to this SmartCity Press author. That’s a huge problem—maybe the #1 problem—for people with disabilities who are hoping that cities will become more accessible as technology improves and systems are updated.   READ MORE

OUR TAKE: If you’re in the business of travel, you are probably realizing that when travel influencers seek out the advice of the disability community, accessibility radically improves. But where do you find people to give advice or lend their expertise to a new product or project? That’s one reason we created TravelAbility Summit—to connect the two communities. The TravelAbility Summit Advisory Board, which has at least 50% disability representation, has already been invaluable in shaping the panels and speakers being chosen to present this fall in San Francisco. 

 

photo courtesy: Getty images Disability Collection