DisabledTravelers.com Travel Blog

Wheelchair-bound holidaymaker John Roberts is putting facilities for disabled travellers to the test on a month-long trip – and you can follow his progress exclusively in Travel Weekly.

Follow John’s Report here – http://www.travelweekly.co.uk

John has also launched equallywelcome.com, a not-for-profit travel review website that will allow disabled travellers to post write-ups of holidays, hotels and modes of transport.

Here is a nice blog post pertaining to accessible travel information in Tokyo, Japan.

http://www.thetokyotraveler.com/accessible-tokyo/ 

The National Park Service has launched a Web site for visitors with disabilities and other special needs to help them find accessible trails, programs and activities at national parks.

The Web site — www.nps.gov/pub_aff/access/index.htm— is called “National Parks: Accessible to Everyone.”

Many individual parks have sections on their Web sites about accessibility, and the new national database is a work in progress, incorporating information as it becomes available.

The site lists places where signed interpreters can be arranged for the hearing-impaired and where visitor centers have captioned movies or services for visually impaired park-goers. There are also detailed descriptions of trails, including the type of surface, for visitors who have mobility handicaps or use wheelchairs.

Associated Press

The FINANCIAL — Over the past few years, Air France has been making every effort to make travel for disabled and reduced mobility

passengers as easy and simple as possible.

In 2001, a specific assistance service called SAPHIR* was launched, the only service of its kind in the world, which gave a new dimension to our relations with our customers and greatly contributed to alleviating stress linked to organizing air travel for these passengers. The progress made, in conjunction with associations, doctors and Air France staff has been considerable, and is constantly being improved.

“The past fourteen months have undoubtedly been the most intense in terms of development, both with regard to extending access to existing services internationally and implementing new services both on the ground and on board aircraft”, declared Patrick Roux, VP Marketing Air France.

This comes from the Jane’s Airport Group Website and written by By Alan Osborn and Ben Vogel:

A new era in the treatment of disabled travellers at European airports will begin on 26 July 2008, when EU Regulation 1107/2006 comes into force. This will grant a number of extra rights to passengers of reduced mobility (PRM) and impose new responsibilities on airport managers.

Airlines and travel companies are already subject to important requirements under the regulation – since July 2007, for instance, it has been illegal to refuse bookings from disabled passengers. From this July, however, Europe’s airports will be legally obliged to undertake duties that either did not exist at all in the past or that were previously handled by airlines and others. Thus all European airports with traffic of more than 150,000 passengers a year will be required to assist, free of charge, PRM (a category including many elderly people as well as the disabled) all the way from arrival at the terminal to emplaning and vice versa at the destination.

Airport personnel will have to be properly trained in disability awareness and handling. This could be a major task: according to the European Commission (EC), around 10 per cent of the EU population has reduced mobility. [more]