Behind every great trip there is often a great travel agent. For Herb and Agnes Bullock, whose Costa Rica travelogue appears here, that agent was United Spinal’s own Yojerdi “Jolly” Rodriguez of our ABLE to Travel program. And Jolly herself benefited from the knowledge of another agent with years of experience in accessible travel to some of the most unlikely spots for wheelchairs on the planet: Ed Rymut of Eco-Adventure International, based in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin.
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Member Herb Bullock and his wife Agnes vacationed in Costa Rica, then wrote a letter to ABLE to Travel’s Yojerdi “Jolly” Rodriguez, who arranged their trip. They’ve graciously consented to share their travelogue in Action. Friendly locals surround Herb Bullock on beautiful Jaco Beach on the Costa Rican coast. February 28, 2006 Dear Jolly, We have returned from a wonderful vacation in Costa Rica! And we would like to thank you very much for your help in making arrangements that worked out [...] Preventing damage to your chair-and unnecessary stress to you-requires taking some precautionary measures. By Kleo King While airlines are required to accommodate passengers with disabilities, each individual should also be adequately prepared for his/her trip, including ensuring that any assistive devices being taken on the trip are well protected. The following is a list of tips which, if followed, will assure that air travelers with disabilities have a pleasant trip: People with disabilities are traveling more than ever before in quest of fun, adventure, business-and accessibility. By Tom Scott Did you know that American adults with disabilities spend $13.6 billion on travel each year? In fact, the amount of leisure trips and hotel stays of travelers with disabilities is up 50% from 2002. These are just a few of the findings of a 2005 study by Harris Interactive in coordination with the Open Doors Organization (ODO), a Chicago-based nonprofit, and the Travel Industry Association of America (TIAA). (For more information, please visit www.opendoorsnfp.org. Copies of the 2005 market study are [...] If you’re traveling with group of wheelchair users, you and/or your travel agent will need to plan ahead. By Kleo King The Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) requires that airlines accept individuals with disabilities traveling as a group. The regulations implementing ACAA require that if the group consists of 10 or more people, the group must give the airline 48 hours advanced notice and check in at the gate one hour before departure. In reality, the group leader or the travel agent booking the group trip will contact the airline at the time of booking in order to obtain any special [...] A University of Connecticut-sponsored forum addressed a critical lack of accessible transportation for people with disabilities nationwide. By Jayne Kleinman The Problem • According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, in 2003, over half a million people with disabilities said they never leave home because of transportation difficulties. • The National Organization on Disability (NOD) reports that nearly one third of Americans with disabilities have inadequate access to transportation, compared to 10% of those without disabilities. • Sixteen percent of people with disabilities cite inadequate transportation as a major problem for them compared to 4% of people without disabilities. An increasing number of citizens [...] Congress has appropriated funds to seed programs for accessible transportation. By Terry Moakley Funded at $78 million nationally this year and proposed to increase to $81 million in the President’s budget for next year, the New Freedom initiative is now a permanent section of the federal transportation law. It is geared specifically to support local transportation services not required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), with emphasis on improvements that enable persons with disabilities to travel to work or to and from employment preparation programs. In the House-Senate Conference Committee Report that accompanied the bill, the following list provides examples of [...] The executive director of the National Council on Independent Living is a United Spinal member who was largely formed by his experience in Vietnam. By Chris Pierson John Lancaster, executive director of the National Council on Independent Living, has had a special relationship with Vietnam since he was injured during the Battle for Hue City in 1968. If anyone embodies the concept of independent living for persons with mobility impairments, John Lancaster does. He’s been living independently (with a special emphasis on “living”) since his rehabilitation from injuries sustained in a firefight outside Hue City during the Tet Offensive at the height [...] While the National Park Service may not be 100% accessible, they have certainly been making progress. By Rob Ingraham “We have an accessible toilet at 10,500 feet on the side of Mt. Rainier, in Washington,” Accessibility Program Manager David Park of the National Park Service (NPS) recently noted. By anyone’s standard, that is evidence of commitment. Park explained that the NPS helicoptered a portable toilet to the site not long ago, but got complaints from two climbers with disabilities that the facility wasn’t accessible. One of the climbers had developed a mechanized wheelchair device that enabled him to negotiate the snow [...] By Lori A. Wood “In the mid-nineties, one of my residents needed to use a wheelchair following a cardiac arrest while she was on a vacation,” says Dr. Florence Haseltine, PhD, an obstetrician- gynecologist and president of Haseltine Systems, www.haseltine.com, located in Alexandria, Virginia. “When she recovered, she had severe brain injury. Sometime around 1995, she went on a plane trip and her wheelchair got busted up. I went out to find her a container for it, thinking that there must be protective containers for wheelchairs. There weren’t any.” Haseltine’s research told her that her friend was far from the only air [...] Denise Mc Quade turned a passion for independent travel into a career. By Donna Fredericksen Getting from one place to another-independently- was always a cause that Denise Ann Mc Quade could rally around. Independent travel means so much to her, in fact, she’s made a career of it. Mc Quade, who was diagnosed with polio at age 3 and a half, now works as Public Information coordinator in the paratransit division of MTA/New York City Transit, which serves a population of 14.6 million people in the 5,000-square-mile area fanning out from New York City through Long Island, southeastern New York State, and [...] PUBLIC POLICY: Coalition Reviews and Plans In December 2005, the annual meeting of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), www.c-c-d.org, was held in Washington, DC. United Spinal Association is a CCD member organization, and John P. Herrion, counsel, and Daniel J. Anderson, legislative director, represented us at this event. Established in 1973, CCD is a coalition of approximately 100 national disability groups working together to advocate for national public policy that ensures the self-determination, independence, empowerment, integration, and inclusion of children and adults with disabilities in all aspects of society. The work of this coalition is undertaken by 16 task forces, organized [...] by Stephanie Acosta Everyone benefits from using a travel agent but individuals with disabilities who choose the right agent will benefit even more. This is why United Spinal Association established ABLE to Travel, a full service travel agency for its members. By Charlotte Bethune-Fisher In the last two months, we have looked at issues involved in traveling with spinal cord injury (SCI) by land and by air. This month, we look at travel by sea. Cruises have become a popular way to vacation, and especially, as liners become more and more accessible, for people with disabilities. Many travelers enjoy the comfortable accommodations and the array of activities offered on board; the fact that these traveling hotels put in at interesting ports of call is almost a fringe benefit. For people with SCI, however, ships have many common obstacles. by Charlotte Bethune-Fisher Last month, I gave an overview of how to start planning a trip, how to use a travel agency, and what to consider when using ground transportation. This month, we’ll look at how to use air travel. The Air Carrier Access Act of 1986 prohibits discrimination against air travelers with disabilities. For more information about this important legislation and how it affects you, you can order United Spinal’s free booklet Air Carrier Access by calling our toll-free publications hotline 800-444-0120, or you may order it online at www.unitedspinal.org. Where there is a choice of airlines, check on their policy [...] by Charlotte Bethune-Fisher This is the first in a series of articles that will give you tips on how to arrange a successful voyage. Traveling arrangements are generally a straightforward process for able-bodied individuals. Most people contact a travel agency, choose a destination, and hope that their baggage and the sun follow them. For the traveler with spinal cord injury (SCI), or other disability, there is much more to consider when planning a trip. Anxiety about air travel, the accessibility of accommodations, transportation, and attitudinal barriers can be extra “baggage” for the novice traveler with SCI. With proper planning, these issues can [...] by Martin Young Note: To introduce our new Travelogues column, we present an excerpt from a piece by United Spinal Board member Martin Young about a trip to China that he took in November 1997. Board member Martin Young (right) was as interesting to this 82-year-old monk in Shanghai’s Jing’An Temple as the temple and monk were to Young! When I began to practice table tennis at the Burke Rehabilitation Center in White Plains, New York, I became acquainted with Peizhen Shao, our team coach. Zhen, as we call her, came to us from Shanghai, China, and has been in table tennis [...] Making travel arrangements isn’t always a pleasant experience. A majority of travelers have a wide range of options to ensure that their trips do not turn into nightmares. This, unfortunately, is not the case for many individuals with spinal cord injury or disease (SCI/D). Accessibility is not high on the list of priorities for most able-bodied travelers, but wheelchair travelers depend on it, down to the smallest detail. That’s why it’s important that individuals with SCI/D choose the most knowledgeable travel agents to plan their vacations; and that’s where ABLE to Travel comes in. The 1990s were a golden age of travel for people in wheelchairs. The Air Carrier Access Act of 1986 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 each contributed to making people with disabilities more mobile than at any time in history. But then came the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and security measures at our nation’s airports changed drastically for everybody. The federal agency responsible for security screening at airports is the Transportation Security Administration, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. The TSA, with the assistance of a number of disability groups, has developed guidelines for security screening of [...] by Terry Moakley The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), the parent organization of New York City Transit (NYCT), has published a new map of the NYCT subway system entitled “The Subway Map for Customers with Disabilities.” It can be ordered at no charge via United Spinal’s publications request line, 800-444-0120, or online at www.unitedspinal.org. What makes “The Subway Map for Customers with Disabilities” unique is that both its design and content are geared to enable people with diverse disabilities to travel around New York City more easily. For example, a much larger type size is used compared to NYCT’s [...] |
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