We first started travelling and exploring the world with a wheelchair when dinosaurs roamed, long before the development of the internet and the common use of e-mail.
For us, the most amazing piece of technology that had become available was the fax machine! This incredible device allowed us to communicate overseas, rapidly, without having to write letters, which took ages to arrive, and wait for replies which took just as long. Even today I can remember the excitement we experienced when the fax machine sprang to life and a little roll of paper began creaking and crackling out the top of the machine, with us peering over to read each line as it came into view. The fax only ever awoke when someone was trying to send us travel information, so it had to be interesting!
Along with the fax machine, we tapped into the amazing resources offered by books, those chunky, heavy tomes filled with things called pages. The two most memorable were Lonely Planet and Rough Guide. Not only did they provide one with great insight into one’s destination but they also provided valuable information on accommodation and transport. I always had a soft spot for Rough Guide. After each holiday I would write(!) to them and detail our experiences as wheelchair travellers, point by point, with regard to accommodation and transport. They, in turn, would send us the latest edition of our choice – a generous contribution and one which we always appreciated. Needless to say, we have quite a few versions of Rough Guide sitting on the bookshelf in the study!
Sourcing wheelchair accessible accommodation was a real challenge. The guides did give some indication as to whether there was wheelchair access, but this was in no sense detailed, simply a couple of words. The contact numbers contained in the guide, combined with the fax machine, at least allowed us to make further enquiries and ask pertinent questions, but even then we were heavily dependent upon the perception and observation of the person replying. At some point we just had to quite literally “take the plunge” and confirm the booking, sight unseen.
In 2002 we took the conscious decision to plan our first holiday making use solely of e-mail. If you didn’t have e-mail, we didn’t communicate with you. We wanted to see just how far we could go with this new technology. It was perfectly successful, and from that day on it became our modus operandi. It wasn’t difficult, because at the time digital communication technology was developing at an incredible rate, and by the time we were organising our next holiday, e-mail and the internet had become standard fare.
So much has changed since then, and although sourcing wheelchair accessible accommodation remains frustrating, finding out the finer details is an awful lot easier, thanks to the modern technologies we have available to us. The fax machine was extremely useful while it lasted but became redundant rapidly after the increased adoption of e-mail around the world. It still provided us with a number of laughs, particularly when we would fire off an e-mail of enquiry and receive a fax in reply! Some folks just took a little longer to come to the party.
The growth of the internet led to a massive increase in the number of websites created by small businesses, in particular those offering travel accommodation. Everyone wanted you, the traveller, to know about their holiday destination, complete with descriptions and photographs. It wasn’t foolproof, and we soon learned that some folk could be very “creative” in their interpretation of wheelchair access. You still needed to do your research and double-check each destination. Search engines, most notably Google, have played a huge role here – so effectively, in fact, that we don’t really recognise how important they have become in sourcing information, and, in our case, sourcing information specifically for disabled accessibility. Google really is our friend and probably one which we take for granted more often than not. It has largely usurped the role of the Lonely Planet and Rough Guides of the world, not only providing access to similar information but also ensuring that it is as up to date and current as possible.
In our opinion the next big thing for the disabled traveller was the rise of the smartphone, most notably in conjunction with the messaging application WhatsApp. This opened the way for anyone to easily capture images and video and pass them on to the interested party on the other side of the planet in just a matter of minutes. Suddenly we were no longer dependent upon the interpretation of someone thousands of miles away, who often spoke a different language and wasn’t really sure of your request. The old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” holds true. A WhatsApp photo or video of a bathroom or access area immediately shows the viewer whether it is likely to be accessible or not. The whole transaction, from initial enquiry to acceptance, can be handled in a matter of minutes, no matter where in the world one might be. It is hard to imagine these days how we managed without social media and smartphones. We often look at one another and say that we must have been crazy, and we probably were! Ignorance used to be bliss. Fortunately, today we’ve got some great tools that can help us, firstly to source accessible accommodations and secondly to confirm that their levels of access are suitable for our individual needs.