I was chatting with a friend recently who loves to travel but has an invisible, physical disability that makes it a challenge. She has some tips that have enabled her to travel independently in the U.K. These tips are essential for her, but are useful for all of us.
1. Plan your route from the airport to where you are staying using YouTube. Yes, YouTube. There are many walk-through videos recorded by people taking the same route that you want to take. It’s an opportunity to see the obstacles that you might have to plan for or avoid (gaps between trains and platforms, stairs, uneven flooring).
2. Get a paper map of the area. It doesn’t need to be an extremely detailed map, but it will give you a better idea of relative direction and distance than looking on a screen. Then, when you plan the places that you want to visit while staying in a city or town, you have an idea of how these spots relate geographically to each other, and to your hotel. Obviously, use Google maps too.
3. Familiarize yourself with the specific accessibility symbols that your destination uses. There can be some subtle, but important differences, that can mean the difference between a fully accessible route and one with a few steps. For example, on the London tube just a change in colour for the wheelchair symbol means the difference between being able to board a train with ease or not.
“Some step-free stations still have a gap and step between the platform and the train. The Tube map shows which Underground, Overground and DLR stations are step-free. The blue wheelchair symbol shows step-free access from street to train and the white wheelchair symbol shows step-free access from street to platform.
Step-free access from street to platform means there is a large step or gap and you will need a boarding ramp to get on and get off the train.”*
Maintain The Joy Of Travelling
Having the joy of travelling is something we want to maintain throughout our lives. Sharing tips like these helps remove some of the barriers that make it more challenging if we have a disability, or if we acquire one with age. They can help us to continue to see the world!
Share the tips that you’ve used to make travelling with a disability easier? Comment below.
*https://tfl.gov.uk/transport-accessibility/wheelchair-access-and-avoiding-stairs
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