Hi there.

I’m very glad that you have chosed the subject how disabled are traveling.

Together with my husband I’ve travelled in more than 60 countries; being in a wheelchair. I give lectures about traveling as a disabled – through my website I counsel disabled travelers as well as people working with; or simply travels together with disabled.

I find there is a huge gap in information all over the world when it comes to finding inexpensive hotels, transportation etc. – you simply have to go to the location; to check out things yourself.

I think it is a matter of money and the fact that people do not think about access for the disabled.

The most important thing I can recommand to disabled travelers is; be inventive!!

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Well I’ve been covering accessible travel exclusively for the past 15 years. I founded a magazine, have authored several books, write a number of columns and pen web content — all on the subject of accessible travel. I can tell you that access to information, physical access has greatly improved over the years. Today we have access guides, accessible cabs, better access on airplanes and hotel rooms that actually have the access features folks need. And it keeps improving. I get e-mails daily from folks touting the access in their properties attractions or destinations, and I have a very busy schedule reporting on it all. I will say the best thing a traveler can do to make things go smoother is to learns the laws and regulations so you know what to expect in the way of services. Because, how can you know if something is going wrong if you don’t know what “right” is. That’s something I keep emphasizing in my Barrier Free Travel: A Nuts and Bolts Guide for Wheelers and Slow Walkers. Another thing, is make contingency plans for when things go wrong, because they will — after all travel is unexpected.

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Thanks for spotlighting this! My biggest beef with travel on airlines is that the entertainment/movies are not captioned. We flew to Hawaii which was an 8 hour trip and while others were able to enjoy the on board movies, we were limited to one movie until the battery of our portable DVD player ran out.

Another experience happened recently at Universal– we went to the interpreted show and ended up inside without the movie being captioned and the interpreter had been waiting outside with three of our family members so we missed some of it plus they wouldn’t let the other three inside because the show had started. Frustrating experience but Universal was kind enough to refund some of the money.

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Not surprisingly this is an often overlooked issue in travel and just in general. Since I’ve worked closely with safety and disabled persons in the past I often spot out numerous times throughout the day places that aren’t exactly accessible.

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Adding a wheelchair symbol should be enough, if there were a form of regulation that meant that any accommodation showing the symbol conformed to a standard set of requirements for disabled travellers. That’s down to control.

The problems that we as accommodation providers face is that there are so many & varied types and levels of disability, and therefore many different sets of requirements. We’ve been asked to provide beds that will automatically turn a paralysed person over during the night to prevent bed sores. We’ve been asked to measure the distances between objects to allow easier access. We’ve been asked to change whole rooms around before now. And where we can do these things, we will. Living with a disabled/handicapped person ourselves, gives us a perhaps unique viewpoint on what’s often required. We’ve acted on the advice of not only our family member with the disabilities, but also on guests who’ve visited us and suggested various improvements. But, as they’ve often quite rightly pointed out – what’s good for them, isn’t necessarily good for the next person.

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We as a business have tried to combat the problems experienced by a disabled traveller as we found ourselves that the current accommodation and transport on offer is not sufficient.

We now have 2 fully accessible hotels and 3 fully accessible holiday homes all based within Blackpool and the Fylde coast, we also offer clients and equipment that a person may require including hoists, commodes etc. We also offer an entire fleet of accessible transport that can pick up from anywhere in the UK and bring you to and from the hotel. without this sounding so much of a pitch, I wanted to indicate that there are options but many of them are independent and I would stay well clear of the larger companies and chains.

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travel insurance for Disabled People,that really gets my blood boiling,in their form,or forms to fill in,if you tick the box A,more than once,you have to pay obscene top up premium.,all tyey really want is people who are very healthy,that they hardly have to pay out on the insurance policy,unless the person has a serious accident,we ,my wife Anna,and my self went to Portugal in January,i paid £21 for Anna,and i paid £140 for the insurance,they said that was the premium top up for the risk involved of insuring me,but if i wanted to forget i had a Dissability,i could have the policy for the same price as Anna,something should be done to make things a bit fairer,after all these premiums are loaded in the hope you will decide it is so exsensive,and you wont go.

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