"In many cases, (travel suppliers) still don't get it, that people with disabilities do travel."
Connie George,
owner of Connie George Travel Associates
in Glenolden, Delaware County
People with disabilities face two hurdles when they travel: Physical obstacles, particularly outside the United States, and the mental and educational barriers in the minds of travel suppliers.
"In many cases, (travel suppliers) still don't get it, that people with disabilities travel," says Connie George, owner of Connie George Travel Associates in Glenolden, Delaware County.
George specializes in travel for disabled. About a third of her business comes from travelers who are in wheelchairs or, who are deaf, have Lou Gehrig's disease or other type of disability. It's a detail- and time-intensive travel niche that includes not only trip planning but advocacy and education.
The advocacy and education part of her job involves travel suppliers. While non-disabled travelers might think the Americans With Disabilities Act took care of access problems for the disabled, it has not been a perfect success. Furthermore, the ADA applies only to the United States.
The two biggest problems with travel suppliers are their unwillingness to spend money needed to provide access and their mistaken belief that they can handle travelers with disabilities when they don't have the proper equipment or facilities.
George relates a story about a transport company that insisted it was accessible and could accommodate disabled passengers even though it didn't have a lift to transfer wheelchairs into its vehicles.
A representative from the company told George its employees could pick up people in wheelchairs and put them in the vehicles. George had to explain that not only was that illegal, but it was demeaning to her clients and not possible for electric-powered wheelchairs that are heavy.
"Hotels are notorious for telling you that they're accessible when they're not." George says, "They must be grilled on specifics."
For example, guest who use a transfer lift must have a bed with an open frame. Most people have open-frame beds at home, but most hotels do not.
Such details are why specialists can help to smooth the way for disabled travelers who might not know all the questions to ask or who naively assume the information they're given is accurate. "Specialists can grind out the truth,": George says.
Specialists also can make trip planning faster because of their familiarity with accessible facilities. For example, if travelers are visiting Grand Cayman, George can tell them which facilities are accessible and how to find accessible transportation. That's the kind of essential information that travelers would have to spend much time researching.
Within her specialty, George has chosen to focus on cruising. She's done so for several reasons. She wants to give her disabled clients the experience and luxury of cruising, passengers don't have to change hotels and cruise lines are making the fastest advances in the field of travel for the disabled, she says.
In addition, cruise lines are historically customer-service oriented, making the a good fit for travelers with special needs. She recalls a group of clients she had with Lou Gehrig's disease that took a cruise. They could feed themselves but were unable to handle the weight of the regular flatware used at meals. Their waiter offered them the choice of using plastic utensils.
Not all cruise lines are equally accessible however, and some lines are better at accommodating medical equipment that must be brought on board, George works with a company that has an agreement with the cruise lines to rent and deliver medical equipment to their ships.
For her clients, she has found that Royal Caribbean International is generally the best, followed by Princess Cruises and Celebrity Cruises.
Cruising can be scary for first-timers, disabled or not, because they don't know what to expect, but flying always remains frightening for people in wheelchairs, George says. Wheelchairs are their legs and their transportation. If their chairs are damaged, their vacations are ruined.
U.S. airlines are governed by the Air Carrier Access Act, which was enacted in 1986 before the ADA. On her Web site at www.cgta.com, George provides a link to the Web pages of the Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Civil Rights, which includes an explanation of the accommodations, facilities and services that are required to be available to disabled fliers, along with explanations of fliers' rights and responsibilities.
George says her clients have not reported any airport horror stories, as others travelers in wheelchairs have done, because she educates them on what to expect and what their rights also.
George says she is seeing an increase in business among people with disabilities. As more disabled people travel, more people hear about it and realize that it's possible for them to travel, too.