Accessible Travel Has Come A Long Way — And Still Has A Long Way To Go

Only a decade ago, accessibility in travel was more of an afterthought than a primary concern. Things have changed quite a bit since then. Today, the tourism and hospitality industries recognize that people with disabilities represent a huge — and hugely underserved — market. As a result, destinations and hotels have made major advancements in ensuring that those individuals can travel with ease and comfort.

Of course, it’s a work in progress. And one of the driving forces behind that progress is content creator Cory Lee, whose website, Curb Free with Cory Lee, has been an indispensable online resource for wheelchair-friendly travel for more than a decade. His adventures have taken him to 49 countries and all seven continents in the past 10 years, and Conde Nast Traveler recently included him in their “14 People Making Travel More Accessible in 2024” roundup. TURNER recently got Cory’s thoughts on how the accessible travel space has evolved… and where it needs to go in the future.

Why Accessible Travel Matters

“One-in-five people have a disability of some kind, so we are one of the largest minorities in the world,” Cory says. “People with disabilities love to travel when we can actually do that in an accessible destination.”

A recent survey by the Open Doors organization revealed that people with disabilities spend more than $58 billion per year on travel. “$58 billion is, obviously, a lot of money,” Cory says. “If destinations aren’t accessible, they’re missing out on a major market of individuals who want to travel, but just aren’t sure of how they can get there, or what they can do once they arrive.”

There’s still a lot of work to be done. “A lot of people with disabilities feel they can't travel,” writes Australian wheelchair tennis champion Dylan Alcott. “But more importantly, a lot of the travel industry, whether it's hotels, airlines, experiences, they think we don't travel, so we get left out of that conversation.”

Websites Need To Improve

Comprehensive information is the first stepping stone towards making travel accessible to everyone. But Cory is regularly frustrated by what he finds on travel-related websites. Or rather, what he doesn’t find.

“Destinations often won’t have the right information on their websites,” he says. “Or what they do have is written by an able-bodied person who doesn’t have that first-hand perspective of what it’s like to be a wheelchair user in that destination.”

Hotel websites can be even worse, offering only the bare minimum of info when it comes to amenities that are crucial for wheelchair users. “When I’m booking a hotel, I usually call and request photos or even videos of the room I’m getting, just to know if it will work for me or not,” he says. “It’s so important to have those details [on a website] before booking. Things like bed height, doorway width, roll-in showers versus walk-in showers. This is all crucial information.”

Who’s Doing Accessible Travel Right?

Cory points to Visit Florida as an example of a destination marketing organization that is catering to disabled travelers in an impactful way. VisitFlorida.com’s homepage features an easy-to-locate “Accessible Travel” tab that takes users to an information-rich page full of destination guides, itineraries and articles all created through the lens of the disabled traveler.

He also loves that Visit Florida’s accessibility content includes a wide variety of videos. “Videos are even more valuable as a disabled traveler,” Cory reveals. “If I can read about it, that's great. But if I can actually see someone in a wheelchair experiencing the destination that gives me as the traveler much more confidence than just reading about it.”

Uniquely Accessible Adventures

As accessible travel has become more and more mainstream, attractions have stepped up their ADA offerings. It’s a necessary step, but Cory would love to see those offerings go beyond museums and into the more experiential adventure realm.

“I love any uniquely accessible activities of any kind,” he says. “If I can go to an art museum, that’s great. But it’s better if I can go adaptive sailing or adaptive ziplining. All of these adventurous activities are things that the average traveler would think: ‘Someone in a wheelchair could never do that!’ I want to shatter that stereotype.”

Further Reading

For anyone who is working in the accessible travel realm, Cory highly recommends Emily Ladau’s Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be an Ally. The book, published in in 2021, is described as “an approachable guide to being a thoughtful, informed ally to disabled people, with actionable steps for what to say and do (and what not to do) and how you can help make the world a more inclusive place.”

“It covers what it’s like to live with a disability, what language to use when you’re talking about people with disabilities — pretty much everything you would want to know about how to become more involved and thoughtful,” Cory says. “Emily is a wheelchair user who lives in New York and she’s amazing, one of the best writers I know.”

Cory also recommends that those with an interest in accessible travel do the obvious thing: start following influencers, writers and content creators with disabilities on social media. “That lets you see the first-person perspective, which is really important,” he says. “If you diversify your Instagram feed, you’re going to get new insights right away.”

Just a few influencers he loves in this space include:

• Sylvia Longmire: The mind behind the Spin the Globe accessible travel site is a service-disabled veteran, mother, author, consultant, entrepreneur, world traveler, and the reigning  Wheelchair USA 2016. 
• Maayan Ziv: The founder of AccessNow, a social enterprise that shares information about the accessibility of places worldwide, Ziv is a powerful advocate for people with disabilities.
• Kelcie Miller-Anderson: Known as The Chronic Explorer, Kelcie is a disabled environmental scientist and social entrepreneur “exploring the world with a new set of wheels.”

Thank you, Cory! Follow his further adventures on Curb Free With Cory Lee, Instagram and Facebook.

Header image courtesy of Travel Wisconsin.