Scott RainsSOLO TRAVEL WITH A DISABILITYThe simple truth is "nobody stops moving." Whether it is moving through space, or time, or relationships travel is both metaphor and a concrete reality. A few of us have dedicated significant portions of our lives to making travel possible for those who experience disabilities. Here is what we have discovered. Inclusive tourismWe can create the built world around a more realistic and inclusive image of what it is to be human. Meanwhile we work with what we cannot change about our bodies and do the same things as everyone else - but sometimes a bit differently. We call what we are promoting "Inclusive Tourism." We mean social inclusion; full participation. The moral impulse for social inclusion is enshrined in national laws like the ADA, various Anti Discrimination Acts, and the UN's Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. The practical tools for achieving this inclusion flow from the seven principles and eight goals of Universal Design. Universal Design is "a framework for the design of places, things, information, communication and policy to be usable by the widest range of people operating in the widest range of situations without special or separate design." As we succeed in convincing more and more destinations that it is not only the "right thing to do" (even where laws don't mandate it) we show them the studies documenting that it is the profitable thing to do. With the industry coming to an awareness of how it can profit from us as customers - the US market of people with disabilities spending $ 13.6 annually (OD Market Study, 2002, 2005) - solo travel becomes physically possible. Disability - a motivation for travelSometimes the very predictability of daily activities related to a disability is enough to spur one to travel. Consider these routine-breakers:
Going the distance."Step over the finish line." That was the advice coming from the radio as I sped northward alone toward the Canadian border at dawn. Travel writer Rick Steves was interviewing Norman Fischer author of the mythic solo travelogue "Sailing Home." Steves' point was about being transformed at the end of a journey. When you get to the destination , Steves said, "Go beyond the souvenir shop. Go over the finish line. Discover what only that place has to offer." Captivated by the radio dialogue, passing not far from Rick's home at the time, I was on my way to oversee modification of a 42 foot catamaran in Bellingham Washington. The project added a bosun's chair so that, with some help, I could "sling myself over the finish line" onto the boat and sail out onto the bay. Too often the logistical barriers of travel become handicapping for someone with a disability. Little energy, imagination, or finance remains to wander beyond the finish line and be immersed in the spirit of a place. With projects like this catamaran my 89 year old father, and friends from his assisted living community, will be among the first to use the bosun's chair as they take the new "aerial route" aboard. A physical barrier is removed and a new set of life-enhancing possibilities becomes available to a whole community of people. There's a paradox to solo travel. It is there in the value we call inter-dependence which forms the heart of disability culture. Unfamiliar environments remind us that even the simplest activities require us to rely on others. Environments that were never built for people with disabilities in the first place open that level of awareness to us permanently. Solo travel, from the outside, looks like the ultimate in asserting independence. Yet we know from the inside that it is really a way of deeply connecting with persons and place. By paring travel down to the essentials the solo traveler feels the consequences of their individual choices with a new immediacy. Solo travel is a lot like living with a disability. *This article was originally published in the Solo Traveler blog.
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