I Make Accessible Travel Look Easy — How You Can Learn From My Mistakes

My uncompromising approach to accessible travel holds travel providers accountable, but it comes at a cost.

Ipanema Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

I am a triple amputee and power wheelchair user and have crisscrossed the globe more times than I can count. Plane, train, bus, boat, roller coaster, zip line, tuk-tuk, camel — you name it, I’ve ridden it. My passion is exploration and, as frustrating as traveling with a disability can be, I love just about every minute of it.

Every so often, readers share messages along the lines of “you make travel look so easy!” In some ways, it can be, and in others not. I thought I would reflect a bit on that here, in a way that I hope you will find useful.

Though I’ve flown more than a million miles and visited 50+ countries as a wheelchair user, I had a first trip as a wheelchair user too

When I planned my first trip as a wheelchair user in 2014, I had no idea what was in store — though I had been a frequent traveler my entire life, traveling with a disability is very different and I knew almost nothing about accessibility.