great takes on family travel in the U.S.

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 Glenda Watson Hyatt, The Left Thumb Blogger

With both my husband and I having significant physical disabilities and relying on electric wheelchairs for mobility, traveling can be challenging but, with some planning and research, definitely possible. Most recently, we have enjoyed cruising from Vancouver to Los Angeles, playing at Disneyland, and spending four nights in Las Vegas. I have also done some traveling within British Columbia. All with only minor glitches and some important lessons learned.

Hotels

When traveling in North America, keep in mind that Canada and Mexico do not have legislation similar to the American with Disabilities Act, which specifies requirements for physical access. However, this does not mean these two countries are not accessible; quite the contrary. But, it does mean not all hotels and resort destinations will meet your accessibility needs.

• When booking hotel rooms, keep in mind that “accessible” (or “ADA compliant” in the United States”) means different things to different people.

A couple of years ago, I traveled overnight to Victoria for a board meeting. The organizer booked an accessible motel room for me. If accessible room meant only a wide door, then, yes, the room was accessible. If an accessible room meant being able to park my scooter beside the bed or to get into the bathroom to even get close to the tub, the room was not accessible. The room was doable for one night. Had I wanted to take a shower or bath, the room was definitely not accessible.

Be specific about your needs. Do you need a roll-in shower? A bath bench? A flashing fire alarm?

Candy Harrington, editor of accessible travel magazine Emerging Horizons and author of 101 Accessible Vacations: Travel Ideas for Wheelers and Slow Walkers, recommends asking, “Can you block that accessible room for me?” In hotel terminology, “block” means to reserve a specific room for a specific guest. Asking the clerk to “guarantee the room” is the wrong terminology as that means “to secure with a credit card’. Harrington says if the clerk is unwilling or unable to block a room, then make your reservation elsewhere. If you can’t be sure that accessible room will be available when you arrive, then what good is your reservation.

• If there is a problem with your room upon arrival, politely bring it to the staff’s attention.Frequent business traveler Eric Lipp, Director of Chicago-based non-profit Open Doors Organization that teaches businesses how to succeed in the disability market, advises people with disabilities to speak up when they encounter an obstacle at a hotel. Ask to see the General Manager or the Manager on Duty and calmly explain your problem. Tipp who uses a scooter for mobility points out, “…you are probably the first person to bring it up. A hostile stand off doesn’t work. My experience has been that most managers are willing to come to a reasonable solution.”

• If you use an electric wheelchair or scooter, pack a power extension cord. There may not be an electrical outlet where you need to charge.

Cruises

Cruises are a great way to travel, particularly for those with mobility impairments, because everything is right there: accommodation, dining, recreation facilities and entertainment. The newer ships are quite accessible. However, the main issue is the number of accessible cabins and which passengers get them.

According to Lisa Burbank, contributing editor for National Geographic Traveler, “Cruise-line policies vary on booking such rooms in advance. The policy often depends on how quickly a ship is filling up.”

• Complete documentation. Cruise lines typically require a medical form, which will indicate an accessible cabin is necessary, so assignments shouldn’t be arbitrarily switched.

The special-needs department can also help with requirements such as flashing fire alarms for guests who are hearing impaired or Deaf and special menus for cruisers with severe allergies.

• Have your travel agent flag your reservation with a note “do not upgrade” in your record so you will not be bumped up to a non-accessible space. If you’re traveling with a group, Burbank suggests linking reservations together so one person’s cabin or dining assignment will not be changed.

I wish we had known this before our first cruise. During the registration on the day we left, we were told we had been upgraded at no additional cost. We boarded and eventually found our cabin. My husband unlocked the door and realized his power chair would not fit through the doorway. No way, no how. Things didn’t look promising when we could not even get into our cabin.

We found our way to the Purser’s Desk, where we were told the ship was fully booked and, thus, we couldn’t simply change cabins. Once they realized we were unable to park our chairs in the hallway and walk into our cabin, they told us to go have lunch while they tried locating the passengers in our original cabin to see if they could switch to a non-accessible room.

Dishearteningly we ate our first meal onboard, thinking that may be a mighty expensive lunch if we needed to disembark before the ship sailed. Eventually, we were reassigned to our cabin, which turned out to be ultra accessible. It was smooth sailing from there - until the seasickness struck.

Do you have any accessible tips to share? Please pass them on!

Additional Resources:

Disability Travel: Part I: Plan Accessible Trips
Disability Travel: Part II: Getting to the Destination
Disability Travel: Part III: At the Destination

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.

Getting To the Destination

The biggest fear that most disabled people have is not actually being in a strange new place, but getting to it. Although flying is slowly becoming more accessible, many disabled people are still dubious about the quality of service they will receive, especially in a foreign country.

In general, airlines have very similar policies with regards to disabled clients, but it is always a good idea to check individual company’s policies. Check with disability forums about other people’s experiences and see if they recommend any particular airlines. Unfortunately, it is not a case of the biggest companies have the best service for disabled travelers, I have had both good and bad experiences with various major airlines. One way of checking reviews of airlines is through web sites such as Skytrax. Although it doesn’t give specific information for disabled travelers you can get an idea about different airlines.

Online Booking Engines

Probably the cheapest way to fly internationally is through reserving tickets with a large online booking engine such as LastMinute or Kayak. LastMinute now allow disabled travelers to request online airport assistance, in order to get a list of the departure airports from your country you have to scroll to the bottom of the home page screen and click on your national flag. Kayak is slightly different in that when you want to make the booking you are transferred to the airline’s web site. Therefore, it depends on the individual airline’s terms and conditions to how you proceed with letting them know that you are a disabled traveler.

Accommodation

There are many types of accommodation available from private apartments and villas to hostels and hotels. There are also different ways of making reservations; through a travel agent, directly with the establishment or through online booking engines. All of the above want to sell you their services whether or not it is suitable for your needs, it is very important that you state exactly what you require even quoting measurements of your wheelchair if necessary.

Finding Suitable Accommodation

Mainstream Online Booking Engines

One method is through the use of online booking engines, however, caution should be taken when using them as they do not provide specific information about the access of the hotel. Other problems with online booking engines are that they do not provide the contact details of the establishment until after the reservation has been made and it is rarely possible to request and adapted room. This means that it is impossible to confirm its suitability and what facilities are available until after the reservation has been made. Even when a suitable hotel can be found, it is then not possible to reserve a specific adapted room, therefore, the hotel has to be contacted after the reservation has been made to check availability of and allocate the adapted room.

However, online booking engines are a good source of information to discover the names of potentially suitable hotels. Once the names of a few hotels have been ascertained a search engine may be used to find the direct contact details of the hotel.

High Street Travel Agents Vs Specialized Travel Agents

General high street travel agents are renowned for getting the access requirements of disabled travelers totally wrong. I have been contacted through my company AccessibleBarcelona on several occasions by disabled people that have arrived in Barcelona to find that the hotel that they booked through their travel agent is not accessible. Although they are slowly getting better it may well be worth going to a specialized travel agent that has a lot of experience of organizing trips for disabled people. The drawback of specialized travel agents? The cost, as with any travel agent their commissions can be extremely high at 20 or 30% of the total package.

Other Methods of Booking Hotels and Services

Some disabled people have become so fed up with the lack of understanding of their needs within the travel industry, that they themselves have begun writing their own online travel guides or setting up services where they live. The companies they establish are not travel agents as such, but more independent businesses that arrange services such as accessible hotel reservations, airport transfers, equipment hire and tours for disabled travelers.

Using search engines, disability forums and blogs is a good way to find these web sites. In order to get the best results from search engines the correct keywords need to be used such as disabled, access, accessible, hotels, accommodation along with the name of your destination.

Next up, Part III: At the Destination

Share your destination experiences with us, good or bad, we are interested in hearing about your trips!

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!

Recently on my flight back to Shanghai from the Kango headquarters in Palo Alto, California, I began chatting with a nice lady sitting next to me. She soon warmed up to me and informed me she was the mother of two sons, a college accounting student and an autistic teen. One thing led to another and she began telling me how much the elder boy enjoys putting effort into planning family vacations (i.e. selecting destinations, scheduling itinerary, routing on maps.)

This was my first experience talking to the mother of a child with special needs. I was surprised that she didn’t rant about the inconveniences that accompany traveling with her younger son. I have the feeling that if we can do some research and put up a summary of travel tips for parents of disabled children, we can help make trips better for all involved.
Here are stories and photographs for and about traveling with disabled children— from fathers, mothers, researchers and the kids themselves.

Get Around Guide — a blog by Darren Hillock. Darren is the father to a child who needs a wheelchair to get around. His blog is updated very frequently and he keeps close track of the latest news and regulations about disability travel. He also blogs about destination travel access for parents like him.

Dream Mom, formerly a Senior Account Manager in the healthcare industry, blogging motivation is her son, Dear Son, “who has lost his ability to walk on his knees, sit up and hold his head up (in 2005)“.

Growing up with a disability : David is going to Dominican University this week. Congratulations to him! He has been recording his interviews for people living with disabilities: “Personal, real stories - be they humorous, sad, angry, fun, or … whatever!” He is an active participant of blog carnival for disabilities and has many quality posts (like Top 10 Disability Themes) on his blog.

Ryn Tale’s Book of Days: ROOOOAAAR!: Kathryn is the mother to a beautiful girl Ellie, who is a “27-weeker preemie warrior princess“. I like Kathryn’s Observations from the blogosphere which provides great reviews on the blogs of this interest.

Rolling Rains Report: by Scott Rains: Keywords to describe this blog are: Travel, Disability, and Universal Design. The most exciting part of this blog is the photo sharing about ‘Travel with a Disability’. It is a 286-member group on Flickr. Is there a better way to share a trip than through sharing photographs?

Here are some tips about disability travel from my research:

Jill Browne from Suite 101 writes great articles about air travel guide for disabled travelers. Besides A Guide for Persons with Disabilities: Taking Charge of the Air Travel Experience by Canadian Transportation Agency, UK Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee also provides printable guidelines on its website, Access to air travel: guidance for disabled and less mobile passengers.

Jill Browne also analyzed the Airline Disability Complaints 2006, helping everyone make sense of the numbers in the U.S. Department of Transportation reports. The relative number of disability complaints per 1 million passengers is the best metric by which an airline should be judged.

Jim Lubin started this ultimated resources for disABILITY in 1994. Disability Travel and Recreation Resources provides a list of websites in the following categories:

• Travel Planning
• Destinations
• Transportation
• Air Travel
• Especially for Children
• Books to Buy!
• Other

Updates:

- Scott from Rolling Rains Report suggested Candy Harrington’s travel tips for us. Candy is an editor of Emerging Horizons a magazine about accessible travel and author of 3 books (1 is upcoming). There are some great links on her blog roll. Thank you Scott!

* Please feel free to suggest good resources about accessible travel to us. Email me: min.guo#kango.com.