How Can Travel Become More Accessible?
For the tourism industry to be a force for good in the world, it must welcome travelers of all backgrounds, including those with physical and mental challenges. Having a disability makes travel difficult but not impossible — a 2024 study showed that travelers with disabilities from the U.S. alone spend $50 billion a year on travel.
May is Mobility Awareness Month, honoring the people with disabilities who require mobility devices and other forms of assistance. Though people with mobility issues form just one subgroup of disabled people, this is still a good excuse to explore the complexities of accessible travel and the frustrations of travelers with disabilities.
Mobi-Mats are set up at various locations along the Oregon Coast to make the sandy beaches more accessible for all. Photo by Mel Barbour
The Diversity Within Disability
When you imagine a traveler with a disability, do you picture someone navigating through the airport in a wheelchair? A blind person exploring the streets of a foreign city with a white cane? Those are valid examples, but the term “disabled” is incredibly broad, encompassing dozens of different physical and mental impairments.
As someone with a severe genetic respiratory illness called cystic fibrosis, I don’t appear disabled. In fact, to the casual observer, I look like any other strong and healthy 20-something. Beneath the surface, though, I’m frequently fighting severe respiratory infections and dealing with pancreatic insufficiency that requires me to take medication every time I eat. At any given moment, I’m just one moldy hotel room, virus, or dangerous bacteria away from a potentially life-threatening issue.
This means that my needs as a disabled traveler are unusual—I have to avoid respiratory triggers, wear a mask in airports to avoid picking up viral illnesses, get plenty of rest throughout my trips, and have space to carry what feels like an entire pharmacy of medicine with me wherever I go. For someone like me, a wheelchair-accessible hotel room or braille panels in a museum aren’t helpful at all.
Those of us with invisible disabilities face the additional challenge of overcoming assumptions based on appearance to get the help we need. Robyn Dirk lives with several chronic illnesses, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), POTS, and tachycardia. As an avid explorer who has visited 44 countries (and hopes to hit 50 by the time she turns 50), Dirk is no stranger to traveling with a disability. She even runs a blog with her husband called Two Empty Passports, in which they share tips on slow travel for others with mobility issues and hidden disabilities.
Me (Zanny) Trekking in Peru
“These invisible illnesses impact every part of my daily life,” Dirk explains, “Just because I don’t look disabled doesn’t mean I don’t need support.”
The same is true for Samantha Ulloa, a 22-year-old student and osteosarcoma survivor with an internal prosthesis who is currently the co-host of the osTEAo podcast through MIB Agents, a research nonprofit for kids with osteosarcoma. “One of the biggest challenges I face when traveling isn’t the physical pain, it’s having to prove I deserve access to the support that already exists,” Ulloa says.
This can also be the case for people with immediately apparent disabilities, explains Tanzila Khan, an entrepreneur, activist, and travel blogger who uses a wheelchair: “Two people in wheelchairs might have different accessibility needs. It's very nuanced.” When disabled people who also belong to other historically marginalized groups, they face even more challenges to travel safely and comfortably. Khan shares her experience: “I'm Muslim, so I have to look for halal places to eat, and I'm also wearing a hijab. Sometimes that comes with a bit of resistance from the world, where I don’t seem approachable.” That lack of approachability can get in the way of receiving the necessary accommodations while on the road.
With such a sprawling spectrum of accessibility needs out there, it might seem impossible for hotels, tour companies, and other businesses in the travel industry to accommodate all disabled travelers. Luckily, there are some simple ways to create more inclusive destinations and products.
What Does Accessibility Really Mean?
Similar to the way greenwashing has become rampant in response to rising demand for sustainable tourism experiences, many businesses seem quick to adopt an “accessible” label without thinking through what that means for disabled travelers. Khan cites the example of airlines using wheelchairs that require an able-bodied person to operate them: “If you have to go to the bathroom, you're stuck with this person who's pushing your wheelchair because you can't operate the wheelchair yourself.” Though offering a wheelchair in the first place may make an airline seem “mindful of accessibility,” Khan says it actually “creates a system that serves the able-bodied and not the person with the disability.” To solve this issue, she suggests that businesses employ people with disabilities and “take their voices into account rather than sitting down and just doing their brainstorming.”
Thinking outside the box and welcoming input from disabled travelers can help businesses become adaptable to a wide variety of needs. After all, no one knows their accessibility needs better than disabled travelers themselves. Speak to someone with chronic illness or fatigue, and you’ll learn that flexibility in schedules is essential. As Dirk puts it: “It’s not just about getting somewhere—it’s about how long we’re expected to stand, walk, or even sit upright without rest.”
Though businesses striving for accessibility have a responsibility to welcome conversation, listen, and accommodate when possible. Much of the actual planning must happen on the part of the disabled traveler. Which is why all the disabled travelers I spoke to agreed that providing detailed and accurate accessibility information on their websites is the single most important thing businesses can do to reduce the burden on disabled travelers.
As Ulloa suggests, that means not only highlighting hotel rooms that are wheelchair accessible, for example, but also including labels such as “minimal walking involved,” “elevators available,” or “resting spots available” when describing products and services so disabled travelers can more easily understand if a business can accommodate their needs.
Left to Right: 1. Hearing Loop Technology at Coos Bay Visitors Center, Oregon. 2. An accessible kayak launch in Oregon. 3. An accessible merry-go-round that allows users to easily enter and sit. 4. Color-blind glasses designed to help individuals with color vision deficiencies see a wider range of colors are available to borrow for free in Lincoln City, OR. Photos by Mel Barbour
Progress in Accessible Travel and What’s Next
Progress in accessible travel may not be as swift as disabled travelers would like, but there still are some wins to celebrate, like the appearance of more and more companies that cater specifically to disabled travelers. That includes Go Beyond Holidays, which arranges trips for people with invisible disabilities and mental illnesses, as well as deaf-owned Hands On Travel that provides tours around the world in sign language, and Wheel The World, a booking platform for people with accessibility needs.
Some destinations are also paving the way for more inclusive, accessible travel, like the Oregon Coast Visitors Association, which offers free all-terrain track chair rentals, accessible piers, and more, so everyone can enjoy the Oregon Coast.
Anyone who has traveled or works in the tourism industry knows how transformative travel can be, an experience that shouldn’t be limited to the able-bodied. “Travel might look different for those of us with hidden disabilities, but it’s still absolutely worth it,” says Dirk.
Being more inclusive about who gets access to life-changing travel experiences starts with basic empathy. According to Ulloa: “It’s pretty simple: be patient, be kind, and don’t make assumptions about what someone is going through.”
Khan likes to think of the issue as “community” versus “concrete,” infrastructure. “Community will always take the lead when it comes to solving problems,” she says, “concrete will not. In Scandinavia, the community is not that strong. You can feel isolated with a disability, but the infrastructure is there. In my country, Pakistan, we don't have accessible infrastructure, and it's difficult to travel, but I'm convinced that I can go anywhere because the community is very strong and comes forward to help you.”
Moving forward, then, how can we find solutions rooted in empathy and community to make travel more accessible?
About the Author
Zanny Merullo Steffgen is a freelance travel journalist based in Colorado whose work focuses on sustainable and responsible tourism. Her writing has appeared in Lonely Planet, Fodor's, Adventure.com, and other magazines. To read more of her work, visit zannymerullosteffgen.com or follow her on Instagram @zanmerusteffgen
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-steffgen-02025b17b/