Disabled Access: We’re all going on a summer holiday (well, most of us)

Ah, Summer, the time our thoughts turn to holidays and a cheap getaway to remember what the heat of the sun feels like.

For most people the process of choosing and booking a holiday is fairly straightforward; location, sightseeing, sunbathing and whatever other pursuits you fancy, but throw a disability into the mix there are a number of other considerations and costs.

If you’re able bodied it is so much easier to hop on a plane and stay with friends and family, though I have friends and family all over the world, I can’t accept offers to stay with them as most of their homes aren’t accessible and it costs a fortune to stay in hotels. It’s nearly impossible to find a reasonably priced accessible hotel; the large chain hotels are pretty good at providing accessible rooms but their rates are usually too high, especially for a solo traveller. I’ve even been told that I would have to book the executive king suite in a hotel as that was the only room they had converted with an accessible roll in shower. I’ve nothing against staying in a suite but the price they wanted me to pay was stratospheric and I felt I was being financially penalised because of my disability and access requirements.

Accessible means different things to different people; my needs are not going to be the same as a guest with a visual impairment or a guest of small stature, so before booking it’s important to clarify your needs with the hotel’s concept of accessible. My personal requirements aren’t excessive, simply enough space to get around the room, I won’t need the small sofa, two armchairs and the desk chair so it’s ok to move them out of the room to increase the floorspace.

While on the subject of the floor…deep pile carpets…the bane of a wheelchair user’s arms. I know they feel soft and luxurious underfoot but they are annoying and exhausting underwheel. Last year I did revolutions of glee when I discovered a gorgeous boutique hotel in Paris that had black wooden floorboards throughout the room; such simple details can bring immense joy!

The biggest problem I encounter tends to be accessible bathrooms. The width of the door frame used to be the most obstructive issue; I can’t count the number of hotels I’ve arrived at only to find I cannot fit my wheelchair in the bathroom. This has led to some fairly stressful yet comic moments, including a feeble attempt to grip the bathroom walls, only to slide to the floor in a heap of giggles; evidently I’m not Spiderman. You’ll find most physically disabled people tend to be extremely resourceful; we have to find creative ways to overcome impossible physical logistics.

Thankfully most door frames are now wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs, but not enough hotels include roll in showers, transferring in and out of a bath is incredibly awkward and roll in showers are so much easier to use. Though often shower heads are set at the highest level, making it impossible for me to reach, usually the kind of thing I only notice when I’m undressed and in a rush in the morning. Generally resulting in a hurried rush for a towel and a panicked phonecall to reception to send someone up to drag the shower head back down to within my reach.

Until I arrive at my destination and get inside the room there is always a worry that the room won’t be as described, there is no one stop shop travel resource, the main travel websites aren’t reliable, so it requires a lot of online research before calling the hotel and speaking with someone in reservations who you hope understands the meaning of wheelchair accessible and roll in shower.

One aspect that can cause anxiety when travelling is transport assistance, very often wheelchair users rely upon transport authorities to provide some form of special assistance, the standard of which can vary greatly between providers; no matter how many times I request and confirm my specific assistance needs the majority of the time something goes awry and the assistance isn’t provided. Most disabled people who travel frequently will agree it can be the most stressful and humiliating element of a trip whether it’s by train, plane or bus.

For those who enjoy outdoor activities and high octane sports there are many organisations geared up with accessible facilities, personally they’re not for me, I prefer to explore a new city independently, to go beyond the sightseeing and absorb a new culture or alternatively lie in the sun with a good book and an accessible pool. I’m ridiculously squeamish so camping is unlikely (though I would consider glamping), I’m more inclined to stay at sexy little boutique hotels or an indulgent spa!

No matter what the access hurdle I’m not deterred from travelling, I’m not allowing the built environment to curb my wanderlust, irrespective of any physical obstacles I face, the warm and welcoming attitude I receive in most countries more than compensates. There has been improvement, hotels are increasing their access and there are more online reviews to enable disabled travellers to make an informed choice – but progress is slow. I’m not sure if hoteliers and tour operators realise how much money there is to be made if they improved their access and listened to their disabled guests. As Teddy Roosevelt said, “If you build it, they will come”.

Most accessible city I’ve visited: Las Vegas.

Recent Posts on Notebook

• Ultramarathon man: Fear vs The running power
• Barking blondes: Who's smarter - cats or dogs?
• Diary of an aid worker: The truth about gold mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo
• Remittances could be as sustainable as international development finance
• A sense of justice: The devastating impact of legal aid reforms

• Joree

  You could make this into a business – special travel agent for disabled people, check them all out, ratings for different requirements. People all over the world have these problems, plenty of clients.

• Melville2010

  We all have a holiday disability nightmare how about staff working to rule becuase they are not being tipped enough by long stay disabled residents? Organise and make proper representation was my advise which fell on the deaf ears of the Tenerife mucho macho fascist sympathizers who ran the bar and canteen – why ‘cos they did not believe in unions. The guy who ran the British pub on the corner a guy from mainland Spain said they didn’t even like him becuase he was from the mainland.

• http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Gwynne/100002969915428 Chris Gwynne

  holiday, i’m disabled and i can tell you there is no bloody way i can afford a holiday. i haven’t had one for four years and if i did it would just be me staring out of a different window.

• Odinrolls

  It gets even worse when you try holidaying with an electric power chair on your own. My old manual (back in the day) could be taken apart and I could bum-shift but these days any steps are a nightmare and it’s not unusual to discover whilst you’re in France your chair is holidaying in Mexico thanks to the airline baggage handlers.

  The only good thing is that once Atos have deprived us all of our Incapacity Benefit & now DLA – where to go won’t be a problem. We’ll be lucky if we can make it from the bedroom to the kitchen let alone out the front door.

• Nick Riches

  I’m the “driving force” behind my wife’s wheelchair as well as carer/hubby/bread earner. I will certainly agree trying to find suitable holiday accomodation is damn difficult and we stay in the UK! We like holiday cottage holidays but I steer well clear of all the main “dealers”, especially when the nearest they get to any description is “level access throughout” and that doesn’t include the three steps to the front door or the thick gravel drive!