In downtown Visalia, California, next to the local post office, stands a lone sequoia tree, named The Legacy Tree. It is a very tall baby tree, if you will, planted nearly 100 years ago. Surrounding the tree, is a wide, extended, circular mulch and rock area, which indicates the projected growth of the circumference ... Read more
Accessible Travel
All Wheels Up — Wheelchair Travel Safety
Michele Erwin is a mother on a mission. After experiencing the struggles of traveling by air with her son, who has spinal muscular atrophy, she had a “call to action” moment–something had to be done to make air travel accessible to the disabled community. Michele soon learned that there was not a single organization ... Read more
Wheel Pad — Accessible Tiny Homes
This is a story with the potential to bring hope and real connection to those who have lost theirs. It’s a story about giving people with mobility issues a chance to regain their independence while growing accustomed to their new life. And all thanks to Julie Lineberger and architect Joseph Cincotta, a husband-wife team ... Read more
Dubai — Access in Progress
As Dubai builds a global community surrounding tourism and innovation, it strives to focus on accessibility to welcome all global travelers. Access Dubai invited ABILITY Magazine to check it out. Knowing the UAE’s high degree of safety protocols in place made it easy to accept an invitation during the 2020 COVID-19. Before visitors can ... Read more
Metrolink introduces new ticket machines with accessibility features
Metrolink announces the installation of 133 new ticket machines at its stations across Southern California. The new machines improve the customer experience through improved reliability, a focus on accessibility, and smarter, more customer-friendly features, such as touchscreens. The machines comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), featuring voice enabled technology, a headphone jack ... Read more
Winnebago’s Accessible Road Trip
Watching travel shows, or reading articles on vacation destinations can’t take the place of being out in the real world. For many the open road has been an accessible challenge. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2012 report, there are around 3.6 million people over the age of 15 who use a wheelchair, with ... Read more
Karah Behrend and the Rebelle Rally
Karah Behrend is all about breaking down barriers. She’s an adaptive athlete who not only completed the grueling eight-day, off-road Rebelle Rally—her first time ever—but the medically retired Air Force veteran placed second. With Behrend behind the wheel of a Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross, made accessible with hand controls to accommodate her, and her teammate ... Read more
Global Disability Strategies and Action Plans
Disability Strategies and Action Plans by Country/Area Country/Area Strategies and Action Plans — PDF links Language Afghanistan Strategy for Disability and Rehabilitation 2013-2016 English Afghanistan National Disability Action Plan 2008-2011 English Albania National Strategy on People with Disabilities English Angola Strategy for the Protection of Persons with Disabilities Portuguese National Plan of Integrated Actions ... Read more
Native Hotels — Accessible Tourism
Meet NATIVE, an organization that specializes in helping hotels create accessible environments for people with disabilities. NATIVE—which stands for the Network of Accessible Tourism for an Inclusion Valued Economy — consults with hotels and monitors their progress toward accessibility in every stage of a traveler’s experience, from check-in to check-out. This includes applying embossed ... Read more
Protected: Get Native!
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Special Olympics World Games 2019; 200 Countries, 7.5K Athletes, Millions of Viewers
THE EVENING CEREMONY SIGNALS START OF SPECIAL OLYMPICS WORLD GAMES ABU DHABI Parade of Athletes from record number of nations, accompanied by Special Olympics Chairman Dr Timothy Shriver, Heads of State, VIPs, celebrities and representatives of the Special Olympics movement, met with huge applause as they entered arena His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed ... Read more
Visions for the Future of Mobility at CES
Five finalists in the three-year Mobility Unlimited Challenge have been unveiled at CES in Las Vegas. The Toyota Mobility Foundation launched the $4 million global challenge in 2017 in partnership with Nesta’s Challenge Prize Centre, with the aim of improving the lives of millions of people with lower-limb paralysis. The Challenge invited engineers, innovators, ... Read more
Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2018, Designed to Protect Passengers with Disabilities
U.S. Senate vote of 93 to 6 to passes the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2018 (H.R. 302). The legislation includes a ‘bill of rights’ and an advisory panel for passengers with disabilities, as well as revised training and procedures for TSA screenings of people with disabilities. “Passengers with disabilities deserve equal access ... Read more
Florence Haseltine, MD, PhD, Health Researcher and Wheelchair Protection Inventor
Florence Haseltine, MD and PhD, has more accomplishments than most of us could hope for in several lifetimes. She’s an inventor who designed the Haseltine Flyer, a protective container for wheelchairs that is used on airplanes to help people with disabilities travel more easily. She’s also a biophysicist, a reproductive endocrinologist, and a women’s ... Read more
U.S. Access Board to Hold Forum on Assembly Area Accessibility – Be There!
On September 6th 2018, the U.S. Access Board will hold a public forum on accessibility and assembly areas. The daylong event will focus on accessibility issues related to the design of movie theaters, dinner theaters, performing arts centers, lecture halls, stadiums, arenas, grandstands, and other assembly venues. It will be structured as a town hall meeting ... Read more
Accessible Taxis – Several Cities Get New Wheels
Transportation in New York City is due to be overhauled with the introduction of MV-1 accessible cabs in the coming months.Made by the South Florida-based Vehicle Production Group (VPG) and assembled in Indiana, the taxis will be rolled out in such metro areas as Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington, DC, Atlanta and Toronto after making their debut ... Read more
NATIVE Hotels and ABILITY Magazine are Partnered to Expand Awareness for the Need and Benefits in Accessible Destinations
Since 2010, NATIVE Hotels have worked with clients, hoteliers and engineers to provide better experiences for all. Your accessible journey begins on an accessible website, perhaps as accessible as NATIVE’s, where you can browse the Internet without looking at the screen, without touching the keyboard and without talking to the computer. Simply by blowing, ... Read more
Paralyzed Veterans of America Fight Rolling Back Airlines Required Tracking of Lost and Damaged Wheelchairs
Paralyzed Veterans of America et al. v. U.S. DOT As Paralyzed Veterans’ Case Against Administration Moves Forward, Veterans are Going To Washington To Lobby Congress Democracy Forward filed a petition for a writ of mandamus on behalf of Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) in their case against the Department of Transportation (DOT) for unlawfully ... Read more
International Toilet Tourism
We may be on the verge of a renaissance when it comes to toilets and the spaces they inhabit. Travel and tourism researchers Carolyn Childs and Bronwyn White conducted focus groups and quantitative research on the impact of public toilets in tourism destinations. And guess what? The quality of a restroom matters … a ... Read more
Sports — Diplomacy to Touch the World
For the hundredth time, she wrapped her hands tightly around the barbell and breathed in deeply. She pushed the weight up over the rack and waited for the signal from the judge. For a moment, she blocked out every other thought and concentrated on only one task: bringing the weight down onto her chest ... Read more
