Hello again!
Today I chose to do some more research on the Access-Able website that grew from the Travelin' Talk website. This webpage was easier for me to explore since I didn't need to be a member of the website in order to view it more thoroughly. The website is very easy to navigate and is broken down into several categories that you can choose from to help guide you through. When you first enter the website, it tells you what information and resources are available. The list includes information and resources about: travel with a special need, disability magazines, access guides for cities, resorts and attractions, wheelchair or scooter rentals, and accessible transportation and more! They have links you can click on that will take you to specific areas such as "summer fun", "cruise ships", "travel tales" which offers good and bad stories from travelers about what to expect when traveling to certain destinations. I chose to look at some of these tales to see if they were helpful at all. When you click on "travel tales", it then takes you to a page that has the stories broken down by regions and each of the stories has a title which you then click on to read the entire story. I read a story entitled "Disaster at Sea". This family went on a cruise ship and had a horrible experience. The handicap rooms that were available were few and far between and were not up to snuff with what they actually required with having to use a wheelchair. The elevator barely held the wheelchair and their windows were blocked by lifeboats. Another resource that they offered that I think would be very helpful when trying to plan a vacation with a family with a person with a disability, was a list of travel agents who are experienced in planning vacation for just such families. During my research, it has been uplifting to learn how many great resources are available out there for families who have persons with disabilities. I only hope that these families are aware of just what's out there for them. Here is the link for the website I explored today: http://access-able.com/graphical_index.html
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is really encouraging to find so many websites and resources about traveling with a disability. To know that there are travel agents who are experienced at planning accessible vacations is great. All families deserve to go on nice vacations and having this kind of information and resources available I'm sure is very helpful. I found the travel stories very interesting as well. There are so many things I didn't even think to consider about choosing a vacation destination when you or a family member uses a wheelchair. I'm interested to see what else you find. If you come across any really accommodating vacation spots I'd love to know.
I wonder how many families know of a travel agent who specializes in this.... I am guessing that the type of disability is a factor in selecting a vaca. For example, I am guessing a cognitively and socially competent person who uses a wheelchair is more likely to find services than a family who has a child with behavior or socially unacceptable issues. Did you find anything on this?
ReplyDeleteI have not found any websites or areas within websites that pertain to specific disabilities. On the Disney website they had links to take you directly to certain disability accommodations but they were pertaining to wheelchair access, hearing loss, blindness, etc. not to behavior issues and what not. This could be an interesting topic to explore further. I think that when people think of handicap accommodations they think mainly of accommodations such as wheelchair ramps and Braille.
DeleteHey Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI love this website because of the amount of resources they have available. I thought I'd try to answer the question that I brought up about travel agents that could help families with disabilities. When I went to the search engine to see if there were any agencies that could help my topic (families with children that have OI)an error message popped up. I thought that may be it could have been that only link that was having the issue but when I tried another disability I ran into the same problem.