SubscribeWith gratitude to New Mobility magazine, Monica Guy, and Landscape Structures Inc., and Mão na Roda this article is making the rounds - and starting some conversations.
Recently in By the Author Category
I encourage Rolling Rains readers to respond to Liz's post on Travels with Pain below.
A bit of background. Liz Scott is a travel writer with several excellent books to her name. This year was her first year addressing the SATH Congress. Liz lives - and travels - with chronic pain. The story below recounts intimately how pain and travel mixed on her return from the congress.
One further note. Liz is a neighbor. I did not attend SATH this year. I wish I had. If I had I can only image that we would have traveled together both directions and been support for each other.
I owe my health to the quick response and level-headedness of Sherri Backstrom when several years go I very rapidly caught a blood infection on a speaking trip in Italy. Follow Liz's advice - and don't put your travel companions in difficult situations. Carry simple instructions about what to do in case of recurring medical issues that might flare up. Have an Emergency Contacts list with you. Pace yourself!
More:On Tuesday January 25, sometime in the late afternoon, I collapsed in a bathroom at Atlanta International Airport.
After a red-eye flight from California to Florida, an uncomfortable night spent not sleeping much inside a dirty motel room next door to a bunch of people having a drug party, a 4-day cruise on an enormous and confusing-to-navigate ship (ironically named theNavigator of the Seas), SATH World Congress activities including 6+ hours spent sitting bolt upright in uncomfortable chairs, the stress associated with giving two speeches, an active in-port day on Cozumel, another night in the bad motel after sunburning myself on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale, and a coach-class flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Atlanta, it seemed that my body had had enough. While in the bathroom stall, a severe pain spike started up. At the sink, I got nauseous. Then my legs weakened and down I went onto the white tile floor.
I had not lost consciousness and was thinking rationally between massive spikes of pain. But after a couple of minutes, when somebody found me, I couldn't speak coherently.
OK, so I followed instructions and kept this quiet until now. We are still compiling data for the "third half" of this resource - Northern California.
But now all you need to do is Google to find the new A Wheelchair Rider's Guide to the California Coast web site so I guess the secret is out.
From the site:
Exploring California's spectacular 1,100-mile-long coast can be a challenge for people who need a fairly level and firm path of travel--be they wheelchair riders, parents pushing strollers, or people who use canes or walkers. That's why we created this thoroughly researched online travel guide, with detailed information about a wide variety of sites, to help you make informed choices that suit your particular needs. (For more about our process and criteria, see How To Use This Site.
Among many adventures that await you are rolling across the sand in a beach wheelchair, fishing from an accessible pier, hiking an accessible trail along an urban waterfront or remote stretch of shoreline, viewing wildlife from a boardwalk, and picnicking among redwoods or on a blufftop, with waves crashing against rocks below. As you explore our beautiful coast, keep in mind that it is a priceless but fragile natural treasure in need of our protection. To learn more about the coast and how you can become involved in its future, see our Resources page.
Happy trails!
Related post:
Actually, I would love to attend CSUN's 25th Annual International Technology & Persons with
Disabilities Conference! There is nothing like it anywhere in the world when it comes to technology and disability. There are always new products, projects, and contacts to make it worthwhile. And it is only a short flight from hoe for me.
But I am not going this year because I have the privilege of working with Benetech.
Benetech specializes in using technology to address unmet social needs using a model similar to a technology startup - grounded in their Return on Humanity business model:
Together with partners and supporters worldwide, we use technology innovation and business expertise to solve unmet social needs. Leveraging the intellectual capital and resources of Silicon Valley, we create solutions that are truly life-changing. Our global endeavors have been instrumental in improving literacy, human rights and landmine detection. With expanded support, we can accomplish much more.
For an 8-week period I will assist Bookshare.org volunteers get matched up with opportunities to serve.
If you want to volunteer as a book scanner or to describe graphics; if you are a publisher with books to donate to their online catalog of DAISY-fornatted works, or if you want to support their work financially have a look here:
http://www.bookshare.org/_/contribute/overview
If you want to volunteer as a book scanner or to describe graphics; if you are a publisher with books to donate to their online catalog of DAISY-fornatted works, or if you want to support their work financially have a look here:
http://www.bookshare.org/_/contribute/overview
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=82808fdc-87dc-4d58-863a-b4a65775dc5d)
The full article will be online soon (and I am on my way back to the region.) In the meantime here's the cover photo of Forward the magazine of the Spinal Injuries Association.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=14912dd9-43ac-4f00-b9b0-2778483c1f05)
With photos from the second half of the past decade here is a photo essay on what sights there are to see from a wheelchair with the help of friends and the investment of industry stakeholders.
Maybe it is just the approach of Halloween but there is something eerily similar to writing your own epitaph in announcing that one has been awarded a major prize.
From New Mobility magazine to Scott Rains:
We at New Mobility are impressed with your work as a one-man task force for inclusive tourism, as well as your commitment to freely sharing your travel experiences and accessibility findings.
You are truly a citizen of the world, and you represent the disability community with integrity and good will.
So let me be the first to congratulate you: We have named you New Mobility's Person of the Year for 2009!
The essence of this honor is the cover story for our January issue, in which we will share with readers our reasons for choosing you, explore your various contributions and hopefully get to know you better as a person.
My advice to Rolling Rains readers working in the travel industry:
The January 2010 issue of New Mobility magazine seems like an excellent place to invest some of your advertising budget!
Teleconference on travel, disability, and assistive technology Friday July 24, 2009 at Noon Pacific Time (California). Note that the toll free number ( 1 800 363 8564 ) only works in the US.
This introductory section of one of my talks to the Carlo Besta Institute in Milan was just posted to YouTube.
The clip ends with reference to the Waypoint Backstrom Principles reproduced below.
Waypoint Backstrom Principles Sept 2008
Some of the themes of this clip are continued in the following presentation at the 2009 Carlo Besta Institute conference on travel and disability.View more documents from Scott Rains.
It is that time of year again where the Rolling Rains Report gets trotted out for public scrutiny in international competitions like the Geotourism Challenge from Ashoka's Changemakers. Scott Rains' work sometimes gets emphasized as in the following online comment by travel writer Monica Guy but the real value of these events is to publicize far and wide the extraordinary dynamism and accomplishments of the worldwide network researching, developing, and putting into practice Inclusive Tourism and Inclusive Destination Development:
Scott's project description goes some way to describing what he has dedicated his life to doing, but in no way conveys the absolute enormity of what he has managed to achieve. He has connected thousands of travellers with disabilities from all over the world to each other, to a knowledge base that he has built up himself, and to the tourism industry. His network spans every time zone and his name, among people in the disability community, brings cries of recognition and more often than not personal memories. He does this all at his own expense of time and money, and more often than not at the expense of his health and personal life. He does it not because he is a "do-gooder", but because he is a man driven by a passion for social justice.
My own personal memory of Scott is from his whirlwind tour of South Africa in February this year. He galvanised the sluggish authorities into action, advised and encouraged wherever and whenever he could, gave invaluable support and recognition to the few ongoing projects that existed for people with disabilities - and proved an excellent, entertaining travel companion. Among other things, his encouragement and the network of contacts he introduced me to led me to launch the website: www.accessiblecapetown.com. He continues to play a huge role in moving forward the issue of inclusive tourism in South Africa.
A unique man, an invaluable resource, an absolutely vital challenge for the global tourism industry.
Source:
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/21222
The Rolling Rains submission to the 2009 Goetourism Challenge "The Power of Place" begins:
Who travels is as important as where.
Human experience of the "power" of place depends on the quality of attention and the character of interaction (both physical and social.) Responsible Tourism sets out guidelines for the proper intention toward place. Geotourism sets out guidelines for the proper sustenance and enhancement of place. The Global Sustainability Criteria for Tourism sets out guidelines for the proper development of place. Inclusive Tourism sets out to alert all three that understanding "who" experiences place is essential to creating just and sustainable tourism. It does so by giving voice to the quality of tourist experience from a group who have historically been denied access to tourism - people with disabilities.
The Rolling Rains Report uses best practices from Universal Design to improve the quality of tourism management (Inclusive Tourism) and its impact on the destination (Inclusive Destination Development). We believe that Green Design embodies environmental sustainability ; Universal Design closes the circle by providing the social sustainability of inclusion.
This project is a product of disability culture - a culture shaped by "ways of being in a body," and thus ways of being in and experiencing a place.For the full story see:
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/21221
Design for All India is the journal of the Indian Institute for Technology Delhi on Universal Design. I have selected this graphic for the November 2008 special issue on Inclusive Tourism in India. In the foreground is Craig Grimes of Accessible Nicaragua and Accessible Everything
To subscribe to the free Design for All India e-zine ask Dr Sunil Bhatia to put you on the mailing list:
"There is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." ~ Kenneth Grahame
Except maybe reflecting on it afterwards!
Below are links to each Rolling Rains post on exploring Glacier Bay, Alaska. Starting with:
Cruising in Alaska
http://www.rollingrains.com/archives/002267.html
Continue reading Summary: Alaskan Travelogue.
"The glory of God is humankind fully alive." ~ St. Irenaeus
As I hurriedly prepared for this trip an expected theme formed in my mind around the word "transfers." I anticipated movement from wheelchair to plane, plane to ship, ship to kayak and through it all movement further from daily patterns. What remains with me are still life vignettes and moments outlined against the movement of time. The transfers I recall in retrospect are more substantial than the simply physical.
Awe is the healthy human response to the expansive beauty of wilderness such as Glacier Bay, Alaska. It was evident in my shipmates aboard Sea Wolf. Curiosity, joy, gratitude, resolve, and camaraderie further marked the voyage as a time outside the ordinary.
This trip was the co-creation of all who set up the conditions for it to unfold. The foresight of Sea Wolf owner Kimber Owen who adapted the ship for wheelchair access set up the equalizing environment. The selection of wildlife-viewing sites was expert. The skill of the crew and the humanity of all who shared the trip made it easier to feel fully alive.
Even with huge grizzlies and powerful mountain goats, fluking whales and racing Dahl's Porpoises I leave holding onto the image a pair of hands that look like mine -- thin, curled, weak -- helping me put on a borrowed pair of gloves. What in another place appears only to be weak is what revealed the invincible resiliency of interdependence. Weakness exposed to weakness.
Awe is a healthy human response to a human fully alive. Disability is a medium of revelation. Glory in paradox.
If my travelogue did not make it clear already let me compliment the arrangements made by Sherri Backstrom of Waypoint Yacht Charter Services in Bellingham Washington and the foresight and commitment shown by Kimber Owen, owner of the wheelchair-friendly Sea Wolf. Articles will appear in various publications. One went off to Sandra Vassallo at ebility.com in Australia this morning and two more are in process.
Pioneers like Kimber and Sherri shift cultures.
To get to the Sea Wolf ported in Gustavus, Alaska we flew in a six-seater prop bush flight from Juneau on Air Excursions. Not quite adept at accommodating passengers with mobility limitations the pilot's brute-force solution to not having the proper equipment landed me on the floor as I noted on May 24. They won't make many more mistakes like that -- and accessibility will improve for those who will increasingly come for early-season cruises on the Sea Wolf (i.e. after June 1 Alaska Airlines flies jets into Gustavus with a more polished passenger loading protocol.)
The night before the cruise we stayed at Annie Mae Lodge. The meal was sumptuous and the welcome was like family. The owners have built a stylish Alaskan lodge and given great detail to accessibility. My room had a roll-in shower. I can recommend Anni Mae. As our community provides them with business we will see the trend to inclusion spread to other venues including the towns single - but inaccessible - grocery store.
Continue reading After Touring Alaska - Ripples of Inclusive Destination Development.
Recent Comments