Barrier Free Travels

Just when I though we might finally be nearing the release of the final guidelines on cruise ship accessibility, my hopes have been once again dashed. Dashed, by an advisory committee; more specifically an advisory committee to examine issues concerning emergency alarm systems for deaf and hard of hearing cruise ship passengers.

Not that I don’t think this is a valid concern -- if you can’t hear how do you respond to emergency instructions -- but couldn’t the Access Board have addressed it a little sooner?

At issue is whether cruise ships should be required to provide more "advanced" technology than the standard emergency strobe or flashing red light in cabins of passengers who are deaf or hard of hearing. The argument in favor claims that many passengers miss important announcements over the PA, so some type of visual text messages should be available for all announcements. After all, some of those announcements may be emergency announcements. Also at issue are phones that are not T-coil compatible and not usable by folks with certain types of hearing aids; because access to telephones may be necessary in emergency situations.

The cruise industry of course disagrees. Or at least it disagrees with what kind of technology it should use.

This committee was created because of the large response from the deaf community to the proposed guidelines, which some people felt did not include "best practices" technology. Many people also complained about the lack of captions on movies, but since that isn’t an emergency issue, it’s not something that this committee is addressing.

So I’ve learned two things form this whole process.

1. The Access Board does listen to feedback

2. Rulemaking is a painfully slow process

So, it’s back to the drawing board, or should I say the waiting room, as far as access guidelines for cruise ships are concerned.

Stay tuned.

Segway scooters are in the news once again. It seems that one Florida group that raises money to buy Segways for disabled veterans is protesting the fact that Walt Disney World and Sea World Orlando will not allow them in their parks - even if they are used by disabled guests.

I can kind of see their point, as Segways can go up to 12 mph and there are a lot of kids running around in those parks. I expect if you had folks zipping around on Segways, then accidents would happen. And who would be liable? The park has the deepest pockets so I expect that's where injured parties (and their attorneys) would go. And I guess the parks know that. Hence the ban.

So I suppose it goes back to the old question - can Segways be considered assistive devices? If you are looking for an answer to that question, I don't have it here.

I can tell you from what I've read that folks like them because they are "cooler" than wheelchairs (their words not mine) and because they also put folks on eye level with bi-peds. I can understand the second reason, but unfortunately a large number of wheelers just don't have that option. But I digress.

In any case, one Florida vet tried to take a Segway into WDW and they would not allow him in the park with it, so he had to borrow a manual wheelchair and have his wife push him around all day. He was humiliated by the whole experience as it took away the independence that the Segway offered him.

So that's how the whole brouhaha started.

But playing the devil's advocate, if the parks allowed Segways, how would they differentiate between disabled users and recreational users? I'm sure they wouldn't want to allow recreational users as that would be a real recipe for disaster. Would they require documentation from disabled users? That seems the only reasonable way to separate the two groups, That's where things get sticky, at least for me. Those of you who read this blog regularly know I'm anti-documentation, so for that reason alone I just can't get behind the whole idea.

And I also have to admit that the whole "cooler than a wheelchairs" statement kind of grates on my nerves.

But it will be interesting to see if Segways become the affordable equivalent of an IBOT for slow walkers, or if they just kind of fade away into the sunset. Think about it - when was the last time you saw one?

I think they are fading.

I’ve been getting a lot of destination inquiries from readers lately. I guess that’s good because it means you all are at least thinking about travel. Unfortunately time does not permit me to personally answer e-mails of that nature, although occasionally if I get the same question over and over again I may address it in the “Ask the Expert” section of this website. Check it out if you have a question, as I may have answered it before. It’s at Ask the Expert

For those of you interested in Caribbean cruises, I’ve made two recent editorial research trips — one on Holland America’s Westerdam to the Southern Caribbean and one on Royal Caribbean’s Liberty of the Seas to the Eastern Caribbean. In both cases I uncovered some new access resources and I will be reporting on them in Emerging Horizons — the winter issue will include the Holland America cruise and the spring issue will include the Royal Caribbean cruise. So check it out. A subscription form is available on the Emerging Horizons website at www.EmergingHorizons.com.

If you’d like someone to plan your accessible shore excursions for you, then contact Connie or Vicki at www.cgta.com. They both accompanied us on the Emerging Horizons Celebration Cruise so they have first hand knowledge of what’s available. It’s important to note that they can only plan accessible shore excursions for clients — if you book a cruise elsewhere, you are pretty much on your own. That’s the standard in the industry (not just Vicki and Connie being mean), especially since it takes so much extra research time for accessible shore excursions.

I’m also getting a lot of inquiries on Ireland, so if that is your dream destination then contact Ann Litt of Undiscovered Britain (www.undiscoveredbritain.com). She’s the hands-down expert and she makes several trips over there every year. She offers escorted accessible trips and individual itinerary planning. In fact she’s planning our itinerary for our spring visit (totally vacation — no work) to the Emerald Isle. Ann is the expert on all things accessible in the UK, and every few years she also writes a Curious Traveler column for Emerging Horizons. So be on the lookout for her next column. I’m not sure when it will be, but whenever I get enough questions (that she hasn’t already answered), I’ll pass them along to her and ask her real nice to do another column.

And of course, keep on surfing, because more and more access resources are popping up every day.

It seems I’m always complaining about access issues when it has to do with Southeast Asian airlines these days; so I’m thrilled to be able to report some good news about them.

It appears that Malaysia Airlines is going "above and beyond" in their efforts to serve all of their customers, and that includes offering discounts to disabled passengers. They offer 50% off on domestic tickets for disabled passengers and a 25% discount for their escorts.

These discounts are available to passengers that the airline defines as "physically challenged", a group which includes ambulatory passengers who use crutches and canes along with non-ambulatory wheelchair-users. So basically, slow walkers and wheelchair-users.

They also provide free wheelchair assistance at the airport (not necessarily the norm in this neck of the woods) and they even have a transit lounge (with light refreshment available) for disabled passengers at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Although it seems like a small thing, can you name one American airline that offers these kind of discounts? I can’t.

Indeed, things are looking up in Southeast Asia. Perhaps America will follow suit one day?

Great news on the accessible rail travel front - Canada's Via Rail just got nearly $700 million in funding to upgrade their services at Toronto's Union Station. This is huge news in Canada as it's the first significant injection of new money in years for cash-strapped Via Rail.

So what has that got to do with access?

Well a portion of the money ($175.9 million) is specifically earmarked for refurbishing the locomotives and passenger cars - and that refurbishing includes upgrading the accessible sleeping cars. Earlier this year the Canadian Supreme Court ruled Via Rail had to make their Renaissance rail cars (used on the popular overnight VIA train between Montreal and Toronto) more accessible.

Access improvements mandated by the court include widening the doors and adding wheelchair tie-downs to the accessible suites, modifying the economy washrooms, installing companion seats for the economy class wheelchair tie-down spaces and adding more moveable armrests to the economy class cars.

And now they have the money to make this ruling a reality.