Vacations Blog

From guest blogger Glenda Watson Hyatt, The Left Thumb Blogger, continued from Traveling with a disability in North America: Hotels and Cruises.

Air Travel

Navigating airports can be daunting for the seasoned traveler, as well as those with disabilities, whether permanent or temporary (i.e. a broken leg), for those traveling with children, and for those who find airports too crowded and, thus, are reluctant to travel.

The key is to arrive at the airport in plenty of time before your flight to minimize the rush and stress of navigating check-in, security and customs. Check with your airline for the time they recommend you be at the airport. For international travelers, particularly those with disabilities, it may be three hours or more.

• Staff know their way around the maze of an airport. Accept their offer to assist and save your energy for your vacation.

• If you are a slow walker or have a temporary disability, request a wheelchair for getting around the airport. Many airports have wheelchair lanes through security, which can be much quicker.

• Arrive at your gate in plenty of time prior to departure. This way airline staff will likely pre-board you, which gives you time to get comfortable in your plane seat before the general boarding.

• Guide and assistance dogs, with appropriate identification, remain with you at all times. They are not checked into the cargo compartment like other pets are.

• When traveling with an electric wheelchair or scooter, know the type of battery: gel cell or wet cell. Typically, if it is a gel cell, you can stay in your own wheelchair all the way to the gate and it’ll be waiting for you when you deplane at your destination. With a wet cell, you will likely be required to give it up when you check in and then retrieve it with your other luggage. This means you’ll need to use an airport wheelchair while waiting for your flight.

Air travel can be a lot of hurry up and wait. Be sure to pack plenty of patience and take a book, small games or even a portable DVD player to entertain yourself or your children or enjoy a leisurely meal to help time fly by.

Ground Transportation

From personal experience, ground transportation, particularly for two people in wheelchairs traveling together, can be the trickiest part of the trip to arrange. Most accessible taxi cabs, if they are available, only take one wheelchair, and public transit isn’t always the most convenient.

• When booking accessible transportation, such as airport transfers or a sightseeing tour, Harington recommends ensuring the vehicle is lift- or ramp-equipped if you cannot transfer. She says that sometimes tour operators think that all wheelchair-users can walk a few steps, and they provide standard vehicles with wheelchair-storage space for folks that need accessible transportation.

• When you are doing a road trip, Candy Harrington suggests looking for the newer fast-food restaurants for accessible rest stops. “Granted they may not have the most nutritious menus, but most have nicely accessible public restrooms.”

There are many travel opportunities even if you have a disability. The key is to do your homework prior to your trip to minimize any unexpected bumps along the way.

Happy travels to you! Please share any tips and tricks you have found for making travel easier for you!

Additional Resources

• Accessible Transportation: In Flight Safety – Frequently Asked Questions
• Access to Travel
• Emerging Horizons
• Mexico Accessible
• Candy Harrington’s Blog
• Society for Accessible Travel and Hospitality
• Travelers with Disabilities and Medical Conditions

From guest blogger, Craig Grimes, of AccessibleBarcelona.

At the Destination

The last part of planning the trip is transport at the chosen destination. Firstly there is the issue of getting from the airport to the hotel. Depending on your destination choice and your disability this can be either very hard or very easy!

Airport Transfers

Many European airports have accessible shuttle buses and trains from the airport to the city centre or to the main tourist resorts. The local tourist information board’s and airport web sites normally contain this type of information and they should also give information about access at the terminals. A good resource for finding official airport websites is the A – Z of World Airports. Remember that if public transport is used to travel there is also the issue of luggage and how it will be carried.

Accessible taxi information may be available from either the tourist information board or even your chosen hotel. Some of the companies that have been set up by disabled people may also be able to arrange accessible transfers.

Getting Around

If you have an idea of what you would like to see and do during your trip you can use the local transport and tourist information web sites to plan routes before you leave. In this way you don’t have to waste time trying to figure it out whilst you are on vacation and it also allows you to check which methods of transport are accessible.

Other Considerations

Whilst you now have the bulk of your trip planned, there are still some final considerations to take into account. If you use specialized mobility equipment at home, you may also require it for the duration of your trip, this may include an electric hoist, a wheelchair or a shower chair. You may decide to take your own with you or in some locations you may be able to hire suitable equipment.

If you decide to take your own mobility equipment you may also want to contact you local dealer to see if they can supply you with the contact details of a dealer at your destination should you have any problems.

In many major tourist locations companies now offer accessible tours for disabled travelers. These tours and excursions should be pre-booked in order to avoid disappointment as they can get full quickly or they may take several days to arrange.

Post Trip

As you may have noticed from this article one of the main resources available to disabled travelers is other disabled traveler’s experiences and opinions. We tend to complain about the negatives of traveling and although this is normal, it is also great to share our positive experiences and encourage other disabled people to travel. There are a whole host of information web sites and travel blogs including Kango that would be more than happy to post your travel experiences. So don’t just travel, share it with the rest of us too.

Additional Resources:

Part I: Plan Accessible Trips
Part II: Getting to the Destination
Rolling Rains Report on Inclusive Tourism: A New Strategic Alliance for the Disability Rights Movement
Rolling Rains Report on The Global Reach of Accessible Tourism: IATC 2005 Keynote Address
Access Travel

From guest blogger, Craig Grimes, of AccessibleBarcelona.

Planning an Accessible Trip

The first part of any vacation or trip for anyone, regardless of if they have a disability or not, is planning and it is the initial step to accomplishing your goal. The planning stage of the trip is especially important for disabled people as through good planning many problems and issues can be avoided right from the start, leaving the individual to relax and enjoy their time away from home.

Destination Choice

With so many fantastic and interesting places to visit in the world, how do you chose your destination? Accessibility of places may play a large role in the decision you make about where you would like to go and it varies in different ways from continent to continent, country to country and even city to city. The only definite fact is that adjustments are going to have to be made and you will not be as comfortable as you would be in your home environment. Everyone makes this sacrifice when traveling; it’s all part of the experience.

On a global scale areas can be put into three very general categories:

1. A variety of establishments with facilities for the disabled: USA, Canada, Northern Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
2. Some establishments with facilities for the disabled: Southern and Eastern Europe.
3. Very few establishments with facilities for the disabled: Latin America, Asia and Africa.

When referring to “establishments” this is not only accommodation but also tourist attractions such as national monuments, museums, other sights of interest and also accessible transport.

For the gung-ho disabled traveler, access may not be an issue at all and you may be willing to put up with any conditions and take all the help you can get in order to visit exactly what you want to see regardless of the difficulties.

A great way of getting ideas for your next vacation is by browsing through other disabled travelers blogs, web sites of specialist travel agents and other organizations that provide information relating to inclusive travel for all. Here are a few to get you started:

Travel Blogs by Disabled People and their Families

NZ on Wheelsis a blog about access and travel in New Zealand and Australia.
Both Barrier Free TravelsGet Around Guideby Darren Hillcock give useful ideas for vacations in various locations.
Accessible Everything by Craig Grimes gives an insight into traveling Europe and Latin America.
Gimp on the Go by Andrew Lloyd has reviews of traveling all over the world, a great resource.
Rolling Rains Report by Scott Rains is about Universal Design and Inclusive Travel providing many useful links and information.
Disabled Travelers A travel blog and website all rolled into one by Jeremy Rynders.

Specialist Travel Agents

Holidays For All is a group of travel agents and charities the specialize in vacations mainly in Europe for disabled people.
Can be Done has a great search engine for looking up accessible hotels mainly in Europe and the USA as does AccessAtLast.

Other Organizations

Global Access News has disabled contributors from around the world that share their experiences of traveling.
Accessible Adventures is a web page about safaris for disabled people by Gordon Rattray and it also includes a world map with links to other web sites. A great site for unconventional vacations for the disabled.
E-bility gives lots of ideas fro traveling in Australia.
MAKOA – “disability information and resources” gives hundreds of links to different travel web sites across the world.
Access Able provides world wide travel resources

Next up, Part II: Getting to the Destination

Do you have any tips to share about planning disabled travel? Please share!