Traveling With A Disability
Planning a trip isn’t easy and can be even more difficult if you have a disability.
Learn more about how to plan your next trip!
Traveling with a disability
For those with a disability, there are wider concerns to bear in mind which may require extra effort in the search for suitable accommodation and transportation. There are approximately 48.9 million people in the U.S. alone with a disability. Having a disability has its challenges but should not prevent you from traveling and seeing the world.
Getting into the mindset of being organized and positive is the first step. Accessibility options abound for wheelchair users, and these options are constantly improving in many places. Planning will reduce the likelihood of running into those problems in the first place.
Planning ahead
Planning is the golden rule of most successful trips, with or without a disability. However, since traveling with a disability adds challenges, planning thoroughly and in advance is all the more essential.
Once you have decided on a well-located place to stay, ensuring that you book in advance is important if getting an accessible room is a priority. When it comes to home exchanges, accessibility should not cause you to worry, as specific homes have been designed for people in wheelchairs, which means you’ll have no trouble getting around the house.
At HomeExchange, our mission is to make travel easy and affordable for everyone. We understand that organizing your vacation can be stressful for just about anyone and maybe even more stressful for people with disabilities that need to go the extra mile and search for accommodations with disability access. For this reason, we created the "disabled access" filter when searching for homes.
Disabled people can easily browse our over 13,000 homes that have been labeled as disabled access for people with disabilities. Members and other people with disabilities will be able to search for vacation homes all over the world and organize with ease their disabled access holidays. Contact other members with homes labeled as disabled access and they can even give you suggestions and tips on events, eateries, beaches and more.
Traveling by air
When traveling long distances, taking a plane is the obvious choice but for some, it may be a daunting option since there are more considerations to take into account when you have a disability.
Make sure the airline is aware of what assistance you require at the airport and on the plane so that they can arrange for suitably qualified staff to be in position and prepared to help. Booking an aisle seat is a smart choice, particularly if it is a long flight and you struggle walking to and from the restroom.
What to bring
Creating a checklist is the organized traveler’s first call to action. When traveling with a disability, there are a few extras that ought to be on the list aside from the inevitable suntan lotion and shampoo miniatures. Any medication that you require should be on the list and ensure that there is enough to last the duration of the trip away. Also, consider any necessary equipment you may need such as spare inner tubes and tools, a voltage converter and an adapter plug. These can be surprisingly easy things to overlook so making a checklist a few weeks in advance will allow time for inspiration and thoughts to occur to you of things you had better add to the list.
Having a disability should not restrict you from indulging in your wanderlust and enjoying the incredible experiences that traveling brings to people’s lives. However, taking the time to plan and be organized in the details, from making a checklist to arranging all elements of transportation to considering the itinerary of the trip will make the holiday go a lot smoother and help alleviate any of the worries. With the developments in accessibility that are continuously improving on an international level, the world is still your oyster.